From the MQ-9 Reaper — the U.S. Air Force’s 36-feet-long, 114 Hellfire-equipped UAV – to the TB-2 Bayraktars and DJIs wielded by Ukrainian forces in the war against Russia, drones have enormous utility in warfare. By virtue of being smaller than the likes of fighter aircraft, they can access targets that larger hardware cannot. There are also the incredible boons that the operator isn’t sitting in a cockpit and that drones can still prove highly effective weapons while not necessarily costing outrageous amounts to develop and produce.
Any weapon, though, can only perform at its best when operated as effectively as possible. To help with this, AI has been used by the U.S. to aid in the piloting of drones. In January 2024, 96th Test Wing Operations Commander Colonel Tucker Hamilton explained to Defense News (via Defense One) that previous drone AI tended to only be able to follow narrow commands such as “fly at this throttle setting at this airspeed,” but the remarkable XQ-58 represents something very new.
Flying at 652 mph and intended for operations alongside and in support of piloted aircraft, the Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie can, in essence, make decisions for itself. “We give it an objective, but it decides what throttle setting, what bank angle, what altitude, what dive angle … to meet that objective,” Col. Hamilton went on, noting that this technology is currently being used in simulation conditions as its operators continue to investigate just what it can do.
