U.S. Boosts Development of AI Unmanned Fighter Jets to Check China – Part 2

There are two main reasons why the U.S. is rushing to develop AI unmanned combat aircraft.

First, it’s due to cost pressure. As the production cost of existing military aircraft continues to rise, the U.S. Air Force is concerned that it could end up with the smallest and oldest aircraft since 1947.

The AI unmanned combat aircraft is the alternative that the U.S. military has put forward. The U.S. military estimates the target production price of AI unmanned combat aircraft from $20 million to $30 million. The defense industry is trying to lower this to less than $10 million per unit. This is one-tenth of the cost of the F-35 fighter, which costs $100 million each, and one-seventieth of the B-21 bomber, which costs $750 million each.

With the price of one F-35 stealth fighter, ten AI unmanned combat aircraft can be produced, allowing for the production of more quantities at a cheaper price.

Another reason is that China, the U.S.’s biggest competitor, could gain a numerical advantage over the U.S. in terms of aircraft by pouring a huge budget into strengthening its air force. The pressure put on China by the U.S. is taken into account as the U.S.-China hegemonic competition is turning into a new Cold War.

WSJ evaluated, “The emergence of CCA signifies the development of flight software that can create programs capable of thousands of hours of combat and flight using AI,” and “The technology to control fighters from the ground has evolved one step further, opening the era of autonomous flight and autonomous combat.”

The United States is the most active country in developing unmanned combat aircraft. The U.S. Air Force’s Skyborg project, unveiled in 2019, aims to develop AI unmanned combat aircraft with autonomous flight and combat capabilities and secure early operational capabilities by 2023. So far, it has been reported that Skyborg can fully autonomously take off and land, avoiding other aircraft or ground features and carrying out missions in bad weather. Although AI-based autonomous mission performance is default, remote control is possible when necessary, and the most distinctive feature is that various missions can be performed simply by replacing equipment through mission-type module design.

The most promising candidate for the U.S. Air Force’s Skyborg project is the “XQ-58A Valkyrie” stealth unmanned attack aircraft, which is being jointly developed by the U.S. Air Force and U.S. defense company Kratos Defense & Security Solutions and has been widely publicized. If the XQ-58A Valkyrie is put into operation, it is expected to perform missions in more hostile operational environments than the current unmanned attack aircraft MQ-1 Predator or MQ-9 Reaper.

The central performance shows two internal weapon bays, each with four weapon mounts, and can carry up to eight air-to-air missiles, 250kg class Joint Direct Attack Munition, or GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb. It has a length of 8.8m, a width of 6.7m, a maximum speed of Mach 0.85 (1050km/h), a maximum cruising distance of 3941km, and a maximum ascent altitude of 13,715m. It also has stealth capabilities to avoid radar. It has both air-to-air and air-to-ground attack capabilities. When deployed in actual combat, it is expected that the name will change from XQ-58A to MQ-58A according to the U.S. Air Force’s unmanned aircraft naming convention.

To read Part 1…
To read Part 3…