K‑AI initiative: Redefining the future with unmanned combat aircraft

The Korean announcement regarding the K-AI Pilot programme highlights changes occurring in military aviation. Currently, its capabilities depend on the individual abilities of relatively few, technically sophisticated platforms, such as single combat aircraft.

The Korean project aims to bring about changes in this area—the future of combat aviation will belong to complementary manned and unmanned systems operating within a network of much cheaper, simpler machines that form a sensor network.

Lim Seong-shin, responsible for KAI's artificial intelligence research, stated that tests of the unmanned FA-50, examining its autonomous flight capabilities, would begin in 2026. The next phase of trials will be formation flying and "semi-autonomous combat manoeuvres."

It is worth noting that the schedule proposed by Korea somewhat resembles the work recently publicised by Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works aeronautical innovation centre.

In November 2024, the Americans demonstrated a mixed, manned-unmanned air defence mission using three aircraft—a manned L-39 Albatros and two unmanned L-29 Delfin machines. In this case, the L-39 served as the battle management aircraft—one of its pilots, using a touchscreen interface, assigned targets to the two autonomous machines.

After targets were designated, the unmanned Delfins collaborated to locate and destroy two enemy jets. These tests were another work stage that previously demonstrated AI's effectiveness in controlling aircraft performing electronic warfare tasks.

Although similar experiments had been conducted before, the innovative element in Skunk Works' efforts is the inclusion of a human supervisor directing the actions of combat drones.

Skunk Works chief John Clark emphasised that the experiment is fundamentally important for the future of military aviation, where "a family of manned and unmanned systems will collaborate to perform complex missions."

Sweden has adopted a different concept for developing its own virtual pilot, which—in the framework of Project Beyond—aims to enhance cooperation between the Saab aerospace company and the German startup Helsing, responsible for researching aviation artificial intelligence.

Saab intends to gradually implement AI-related solutions in Gripen E aircraft:

The work schedule assumes that the first capabilities to be tested will be AI Helsing's use in combat against air targets, conducted beyond visual range.

The tests the Swedes are still planning are already being conducted by the Americans. In the spring of 2024, DARPA revealed an experimental fight between F-16s piloted by humans and a special test version of the X-62A Variable In-flight Simulator Test Aircraft (VISTA).

In this case, it wasn't about the course of the battle itself but the fact that the virtual pilot had to collaborate with the real ones. For this occasion, two pilots were present in the X-62A cockpit ready to intervene at any moment, but it wasn't necessary. During simulated fights, the AI maintained all required safety standards and did not violate training rules.

In the context of AI development, the X-62A aircraft's participation in the tests is also noteworthy. This is a modified F-16 that first flew in 1992 as a machine named NF-16D.

Since then, the aircraft has been constantly rebuilt—it features, among other things, an engine nozzle allowing thrust vectoring, which increases the machine's manoeuvrability, as well as an additional canopy on the top of the fuselage, where—aside from communication modules—there is a system responsible for changing the aircraft's stability. The landing gear has also been reinforced to withstand countless landing trials at higher than recommended vertical speeds.

In 2021, the aircraft received its current name—X-62A VISTA—along with a package of enhancements for testing within the Skyborg autonomous drone programme.