{"id":142504,"date":"2024-04-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=142504"},"modified":"2024-04-03T15:24:37","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T15:24:37","slug":"f-16s-arrive-to-be-modified-for-autonomous-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=142504","title":{"rendered":"F-16s arrive to be modified for autonomous testing"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><\/div>\n<p><strong class=\"article-detail-dateline\">EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AFNS) &#8212; \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><span>VENOM-AFT is designed and funded to accelerate testing of autonomy software on crewed and uncrewed <\/span>aircraft. VENOM-AFT complements the autonomy data and artificial intelligence experimentation proving ground at<strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eglin.af.mil\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span><span>Eglin<\/span><span> Air Force Base<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/strong><span> and informs the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program and other autonomy developers.<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span>The next step for the VENOM program is to <\/span>modify the F-16 aircraft into test platforms to rapidly evaluate autonomous capabilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span>\u201cThe VENOM program marks a pivotal chapter in the advancement of aerial combat capabilities. This transformative program holds the potential to redefine air combat paradigms by fostering novel autonomous functions for current and future crewed and uncrewed platforms,\u201d said Maj. Ross Elder, VENOM developmental test lead. \u201cWe look forward to the culmination of years of engineering and collaboration, as VENOM leads a measured step towards a new age of aviation.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span>\u201cHaving both <\/span>developmental test and operational test pilots working and flying from the same location allows for daily collaboration and reduces the stove piping of knowledge and lessons learned,\u201d said Lt. Col. Jeremy Castor, VENOM operational test lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span>During these tests, the pilots will be in the cockpit to <\/span>monitor the autonomy and ensures flight and mission systems test objectives are met.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span>\u201c<\/span>It\u2019s important to understand the \u2018human-on-the-loop\u2019 aspect of this type of testing, meaning that a pilot will be involved in the autonomy in real time and maintain the ability to start and stop specific algorithms,\u201d said Lt. Col. Joe Gagnon, 85th TES commander. \u201cThere will never be a time where the VENOM aircraft will solely \u2018fly by itself\u2019 without a human component.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span>Operators will provide feedback during modeling, simulation, and post-flight to the autonomy developers to improve performance over time and ensure the autonomy is making the <\/span>appropriate decisions prior to and during flight.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span>The goal of the VENOM program is to enable the Air Force to rapidly iterate and expand the body of knowledge for potential autonomy and payload solutions.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span>\u201cWith regards to VENOM-AFT, rapid tactical autonomy development focuses on \u2018speed-to-ramp,\u2019 meaning, go as fast as you can, safely, to ensure we get CCA flying as quickly as possible,\u201d\u00a0Gagnon<\/span> said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ast-split ntext breakout \">\n<div class=\"item\">\n<div class=\"body\">\n<section class=\"ast-brandedhr\">\n<div class=\"ast-brandedhr-line\">\n<p>                <title>U.S. Air Force Logo<\/title><\/p><\/div>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AFNS) &#8212; \u00a0 VENOM-AFT is designed and funded to accelerate testing of autonomy software on crewed and uncrewed aircraft. VENOM-AFT complements the autonomy data and artificial intelligence experimentation proving ground at Eglin Air Force Base and informs the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program and other autonomy developers.\u00a0 The next step for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":142506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=142504"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142507,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142504\/revisions\/142507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/142506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=142504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=142504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=142504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}