What is the true potential of artificial intelligence (AI)? How achievable, really, is the vision of an AI-enhanced future鈥攁nd how quickly might we reach it? How can AI enable and transform government missions? These are the questions that occupied the U.S. Air Force (USAF) Air Combat Command鈥檚 Federal Laboratory, led by the Lab鈥檚 director, Major Raymond Tierney.
The U-2 Federal Lab鈥檚 mission is ambitious: to fast-field advanced technologies at a speed relevant to the warfighter. To achieve this goal, the Lab brings 有料盒子APP developers together with USAF personnel鈥攖he warfighters鈥攚ho collaboratively brought this concept into reality. The team鈥檚 high level of integration is essential in enabling the Lab to produce at the speed of today鈥檚 national security demands.
This confluence of operator and developer was tested鈥攁nd verified鈥攐n a critical project. In 5 weeks, the Lab successfully demonstrated the potential to operationalize AI, putting a proof-of-concept AI algorithm onboard a Lockheed U-2 aircraft (nicknamed 鈥淒ragon Lady鈥) for a training flight. The result: a novel conceptual integration of human-machine teaming on a notional and complex national security mission.