Air Force, Navy Test Raft AI Air Battle Manager System During Exercise

Artificial intelligence assumed the role of air battle manager during a military exercise carried out by the U.S. Air Force and Navy earlier this month, Fox News reported Tuesday.

How Starsage Was Tested

The AI technology, known as the Starsage tactical control system, was tested on F-16, F/A-18 and F-35 fighter aircraft. During the exercise, pilots, who typically coordinate with human air battle managers during combat, instead took directions from Starsage, which, among other things, confirmed pilot alignment with the mission plan, helped update mission commanders and other command-and-control agencies, provided real-time tactical battlespace awareness — a first for any AI system — and connected pilots to human battle managers when needed.

Benefits of Starsage

“We haven’t seen our enemies test any similar technology, so I think this is groundbreaking,” said Shubhi Mishra, CEO of Raft, the company that developed Starsage.

Mishra touted the ability of Starsage to accelerate pilot decision-making due to the AI system’s faster response time and accuracy vis-a-vis a human counterpart. The two-time Wash100 Award winner also highlighted how each Starsage deployment is dedicated to supporting a single pilot, whereas human air battle managers have to handle several pilots at a time.

“The autonomous agent we built is one-to-one, at the beck and call of each pilot,” Mishra said.