– Lockheed Martin says the stealthy F-35 Joint Strike Fighter now has a firmly demonstrated ability to act as an in-flight ‘quarterback’ for advanced drones like the U.S. Air Force’s future Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) with the help of artificial intelligence-enabled systems.
The company states that its testing has also shown a touchscreen tablet-like device is a workable interface for controlling multiple uncrewed aircraft simultaneously from the cockpit of the F-35, as well as the F-22 Raptor. For the U.S. Air Force, how pilots in crewed aircraft will actually manage CCAs during operations has emerged as an increasingly important question.
Details about F-35 and F-22 related crewed-uncrewed teaming developments were included in a press release wrapping up various achievements for the company in 2024:
Lockheed Martin uses AI to augment human skill with machine intelligence – illustrating how systems can connect across the battlespace for faster decision-making and greater adaptability.
“We’re continuing to make significant investments focused on next level air dominance, where fighters and drones operate securely together to strengthen the Joint Forces,” said OJ Sanchez, vice president and general manager, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works. “We are already flying AI autonomy agents to support our staunch commitment to developing and delivering asymmetric advantages to the warfighter ahead of need.”
Continually Pushing the Envelope
Throughout 2024, we showcased digitally-enabled teaming by flying AI agents ready for joint forces today. Recent demos include:
F-35 CCA Connectivity Demo – The world’s most advanced stealth fighter jet has the capability to control drones, including the U.S. Air Force’s future fleet of Collaborative Combat Aircraft. Recently, Lockheed Martin and industry partners demonstrated end-to-end connectivity including the seamless integration of AI technologies to control a drone in flight utilizing the same hardware and software architectures built for future F-35 flight testing. These AI-enabled architectures allow Lockheed Martin to not only prove out piloted-drone teaming capabilities, but also incrementally improve them, bringing the U.S. Air Force’s family of systems vision to life.
PROJECT DEIMOS: Live Fly Demonstration with an F-35 and the United Kingdom Royal Air Force – In this real-time live fly demonstration, an F-35 flying from Lockheed Martin’s facility in Fort Worth, Texas, shared classified data via Skunk Works’ Open Systems Gateway (OSG) through commercial satellite communications to a Royal Air Force Rapid Capability Office lab in Farnborough, UK, where it was ingested into the Nexus Command and Control (C2) system. This achievement marks a significant step forward in multi-domain integration, enabling F-35 interoperability in real-time with a non-U.S. C2 system.
MDCX Demonstrates First Live Control of UAS – In a recent demonstration, the MDCX, a C2 system, successfully controlled a General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger uncrewed air vehicle, showcasing its capabilities as a force multiplier for all-domain system control. The MDCX proved its potential to revolutionize the future of autonomous systems and its importance in advancing Lockheed Martin’s drone capabilities.
Skunk Works Demonstrates Piloted-Drone Teaming in Live Flight Tests – Skunk Works conducted several live flights with the University of Iowa’s Operator Performance Laboratory demonstrating how existing aircraft and autonomous technology can work together in air-to-air missions. In this exercise, a pilot in one aircraft issued real-time commands to AI-controlled aircraft through a touchscreen interface. These flight tests built on previous AI experiments that showcased air-to-air tactical intercepts as well as AI-controlled air-to-ground jamming and geolocation. The technology and capabilities showcased in these demonstrations will optimize operational flexibility and shorten data-to-decision time.
CCA Demo: Operating Multiple CCAs from a Single Seat 5th Gen Cockpit – Lockheed Martin has demonstrated its piloted-drone teaming interface, which can control multiple drones from the cockpit of an F-35 or F-22. This technology allows a pilot to direct multiple drones to engage enemies using a touchscreen tablet in the cockpit of their 5th Gen aircraft.
Istari Flyer Øne: Delivering the World’s First Digitally Certified Aircraft – In a groundbreaking leap for the aviation industry and in partnership with Istari Digital, the Flyer Øne project is poised to become the world’s first digitally certified aircraft. This work sets the stage for a new era in aircraft development and certification, where we create and flight-certify a digital twin of the aircraft before building any physical prototype.
X-62A VISTA: Open Architectures Enable AI-Piloted Flight Testing – Throughout 2024, Lockheed Martin provided the open systems architecture needed to execute rapid AI flight testing on the X-62A Variable In-flight Stimulation Test Aircraft (VISTA). This critical work supported the DARPA Air Combat Evolution flight test program, driving transformational progress in human-machine teaming and trusted autonomy through the first-ever in-air tests of AI algorithms, which involved flying an F-16 against a human-piloted F-16 in dogfighting scenarios.
Eyes on the Future
Work continues with urgency in 2025, with a particular focus on further integrating drones with the F-22 and F-35 in real-world flight tests to enable rapid testing and learning that can be put into action in the near term.
Source: Lockheed Martin