US Air Force revolutionizes F-16 fighter pilot training with world-first augmented reality system
On August 15, 2025, Red 6 announced that the US Air Force (USAF) had awarded the company a contract to integrate its Airborne Tactical Augmented Reality System (ATARS) into the F-16 Fighting Falcon. The company specified that the contract was granted through Air Combat Command and the Air Force Research Laboratory, marking a new step in the evolution of pilot training.
Red 6 thus becomes the first company to provide a real-time augmented reality solution directly integrated into the cockpit of operational fighter aircraft. ATARS allows pilots to train against intelligent, maneuvering virtual adversaries while in flight, creating a realistic simulation of air combat conditions. According to the company, the system combines the immersion of live flight with the flexibility of digital training, enabling repeatable and measurable learning.
This development follows Red 6’s earlier work integrating ATARS into the T-38 Talon. The system is also in service on the USAF’s MC-130 and the Royal Air Force’s Hawk T-2. Daniel Robinson, co-founder and CEO of Red 6, emphasized that integration on the F-16 was a decisive step, noting that the program demonstrated the company’s vision and showed that the future of air combat training is being implemented.
ATARS is built on a low-latency, network-agnostic architecture capable of generating high-resolution, full-color synthetic entities without compromising flight safety or performance. It was designed to support the development of Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), enable effective training in restricted airspace, and produce structured datasets to objectively assess pilot readiness.