USAF test grounds will soon be witnessing more activity in the skies as they have a plethora of interesting things up there. Project VENOM, alias a mysterious experimental program, the main objective of which is to explore autonomous flying in a familiar domain – the F-16 Fighting Falcon.
While the titles could conveniently give an impression that these famous jets are getting full automatic with no human element, that is not exactly how it goes. Project VENOM focuses on the process of developing and testing the engine software that might in the future lead to this global fleet of robotic “wingmen” – drones flying alongside those manned fighter jets, that are so commonplace in our society.
The rise of the drone wingman.
Since the F-16s which form part of the Project VENOM won’t be flying solo. They will get a software system that can take over some flight controls while still under the supervision of a human pilot. This permits the USAF to test the capabilities of the software safely and at the same time.
One of the ideas behind drone wingmen is to develop fighters with real-time learning and adaptive support. This is where such drones can mount tasks such as reconnaissance, electronic warfare, or even carry weapons shielding the pilot’s workload and therefore may increase the overall success of missions.
Why F-16s?
The F-16 is a mature platform, a byword in versatility and agility. This condition thus provides an ideal testbed for the software that is expected to operate without human intervention in unstable conditions. Moreover, refurbishing the existing F-16 by testing it with a drone rather than developing an entirely new drone aircraft is most likely less expensive.
Project VENOM: A Step Towards.
The US Air Force reiterates that Project VENOM is not about developing a fighter aircraft, which will not require any human input at all. The objective is to polish up the software and use the data collected for the future development of fully autonomous drone systems.
This is an important milestone in the field of unmanned aerial combat weapons systems. The data obtained from the CCA program will be employed not only for future unmanned and manned aircraft but also for other enhancements in the field of robotics in the military as a whole.
The Road Ahead.
The appearance of VENOM in the arena changes the perception of the combat in the air. When unmanned fighter jets completely independent of human control are perhaps years away, testing and development on this project hold aircraft combat to be on the brink of a revolution. With the advancing technology, it may happen in a not-so-long time that the skies will carry a new type of wingman who runs on artificial intelligence and who serves to boost the human pilot’s abilities.
