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The U.S. military is planning to put its combat drones to the test: a battle with human fighter pilots. The challenge set for July 2021 could eventually lead to unpiloted fighter aircraft that use artificial intelligence (AI).

Lt Gen Jack Shanahan, head of the Pentagon’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, said he was in contact with the team leader on the project, Dr Steve Rogers of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). He said the AFRL team would attempt to field “an autonomous system to go up against a human, manned system in some sort of air-to-air”. Shanahan said that, at this stage, it may not use “a lot of AI”, but in time, humans and machines working together would make a “big difference”.

According to bbc.com, several projects are part of an ongoing effort to explore ways of using artificial intelligence to enhance the American military’s capabilities. These include swarms of drones deployed under a pilot’s control or operate autonomously, or the AI Skyborg project which will explore how the pilot of a fighter jet could control other drone aircraft – which would act as airborne sidekicks.

However, Shahahan said legacy systems would not “go away overnight” and that it was a question of finding a balance and using AI where it could make things more efficient.

Lt Gen Shanahan said that the military should be absorbing the best lessons from work on autonomous cars in the commercial sector. But he warned that among manufacturers, 10 companies spending $13-17bn on research over the last decade had still not developed a Level 4 autonomous vehicle, one that no longer requires a human driver’s attention for safety.