BOEING

Australian military receives first drone that can fly with artificial intelligence

Boeing Australia on Tuesday unveiled a prototype of a jet drone to the country's Air Force that they hope will one day fly alongside manned warplanes while bringing artificial intelligence to the battlefield.
The Loyal Wingman, 11.5 meters long and 3,218.6 kilometers long, will “use artificial intelligence to fly independently or in support of manned aircraft, maintaining a safe distance between other aircraft, according to the Boeing website .
Drones will be able to engage in electronic warfare, as well as intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance missions and quickly switch between these roles, according to Boeing.
The aircraft delivered to Sydney on Tuesday is the first of three prototypes that Boeing is producing.
It is also the first aircraft "to be designed, engineered and manufactured in Australia in more than 50 years," Boeing said in a statement.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the drones will protect the country's most expensive combat aircraft, such as F-35 stealth fighters and their pilots in the future, and drone production will help with a current crisis, fighting the effects of the coronavirus.
“The Loyal Wingman program helped support around 100 high-tech jobs in Australia. Such projects will be critical to boost growth and support jobs as the economy recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic, ”said Morrison in a statement.
The Australian government says it has invested about $40 million in the project. The Australian government calls the Boeing-RAAF partnership "a partnership", but noted specific details about the real ownership of the prototypes.
Boeing says the project represents its largest investment in unmanned aircraft outside the United States, although it does not give specific numbers, and considers it as customizable for export as the base of its "Air Force Team System".
"We are proud to take this important step forward with the Royal Australian Air Force and show the potential of an intelligent unmanned team to serve as a force multiplier," said Kristin Robertson, vice president and general manager of Autonomous Systems at Boeing Defense , Space and Security. "We are looking forward to putting the aircraft to flight tests and proving the concept of unmanned crew."
The prototype is expected to fly for the first time later this year, Boeing and RAAF said in a statement.
"We can program it to learn, but it learns linearly, it is not emotional and, in many ways, in a sense of aerial combat, it is quite inflexible," said RAAF Air Marshal and Chief Leo Davies.
“When we analyze a pilot's ability to assess the situation, it brings with it an amount of emotion and creativity that allows us to be agile. We need the flexibility and agility of the human being combined with the speed of a machine. When we gathered this information, we obtained an amazing result ”, said Davies.

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