Air Force flight training experts eye artificial intelligence (AI) to help hone skills of unmanned pilots
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Air Force is expanding an experiment with advanced, artificial intelligence (AI)-infused pilot training for creating drone pilots and sensor operators. Air Force times reports. Continue reading original article
The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:
2 July 2020 -- The program, called RPA Training Next, takes some cues from the Air Force’s Pilot Training Next program. Program director Maj. Adam Smith says this new system of learning could help teach new unmanned aircraft aircrew faster and more efficiently than the old system, and fine-tune their lessons to what they actually need.
The Air Force adopted its current model of RPA training about a decade ago, cobbled together from existing manned undergraduate pilot training. This included almost 40 hours of training in the DA-20, a light propeller-driven aircraft, and then instrument training in a T-6 simulator.
The new RPA Course, or RPAC, will consolidate the RPA instrument qualification course, where students fly the T-6 flight training simulator, and the subsequent RPA fundamentals course, which focused on academics and mission-focused simulations.
Related: Artificial intelligence (AI) in unmanned vehicles
John Keller, chief editor
Military & Aerospace Electronics
