Tech
Venom Autonomy Kit on a Standard F-16. a Pilot Handled Takeoff, But Once the Jet Reached
The U.S. Air Force and DARPA have flown an F-16 under artificial intelligence control by mounting their VENOM autonomy kit on a standard F-16. A pilot handled takeoff, but once the jet reached a safe altitude, control passed entirely to the artificial intelligence under a “human-on-the-loop” model: the pilot monitors and can intervene if needed.
The U. S. Air Force and DARPA have flown an F-16 under artificial intelligence control by mounting their VENOM autonomy kit on a standard F-16. A pilot handled takeoff, but once the jet reached a safe altitude, control passed entirely to the artificial intelligence under a “human-on-the-loop” model: the pilot monitors and can intervene if needed. VENOM’s defining feature is that it can be installed without touching the aircraft’s primary flight software, making it applicable in theory to any F-16 in the fleet. For Turkey, which operates one of the world’s largest F-16 fleets, the discussion centers on the ÖZGÜR Project — a national avionics modernization effort integrating systems such as ASELSAN’s MURAD radar and HAVELSAN’s mission planning software.
ÖZGÜR, however, covers avionics localization, not autonomous flight. Turkey’s real counterpart to VENOM lies in Baykar’s Kızılelma and the K-SWARM program carried out with Leonardo, placing Kızılelma within the loyal wingman concept and manned-unmanned autonomous formation flight. Rival autonomous platforms include Boeing’s MQ-28 Ghost Bat, Kratos XQ-58 Valkyrie and Sukhoi S-70 Okhotnik-B.
Source: Donanımhaber
