TR TF-X KAAN Fighter Jet

[MADDOG]

TF-X block 10 aircraft will enter the assembly phase in the next couple of months.

 

[Baris]

The TF-X prototype is ready, yes.

Don't know much about Hürjet.

Will we see the prototype with paint ?

 

[MADDOG]

Will we see the prototype with paint ?

 

[what]

Food for Thought:

US took their first flight with an AI controlled F16.

The US Air Force Is Moving Fast on AI-Piloted Fighter Jets

After successful autonomous flight tests in December, the military is ramping up its plans to bring artificial intelligence to the skies.

webcache.googleusercontent.com

ON THE MORNING of December 1, 2022, a modified F-16 fighter jet codenamed VISTA X-62A took off from Edwards Air Force Base, roughly 60 miles north of Los Angeles. Over the course of a short test flight, the VISTA engaged in advanced fighter maneuver drills, including simulated aerial dogfights, before landing successfully back at base. While this may sound like business as usual for the US’s premier pilot training school—or like scenes lifted straight from Top Gun: Maverick—it was not a fighter pilot at the controls but, for the first time on a tactical aircraft, a sophisticated AI.

Overseen by the US Department of Defense, VISTA X-62A undertook 12 AI-led test flights between December 1 and 16, totaling more than 17 hours of autonomous flight time. The breakthrough comes as part of a drive by the United States Air Force Vanguard to develop unmanned combat aerial vehicles. Initiated in 2019, the Skyborg program will continue testing through 2023, with hopes of developing a working prototype by the end of the year.

The VISTA program is a crucial first step toward these goals, M. Christopher Cotting, director of research at USAF Test Pilot School, explains. “This approach, combined with focused testing on new vehicle systems as they are produced, will rapidly mature autonomy for uncrewed platforms and allow us to deliver tactically relevant capability to our warfighter,” he says.


With Ukraine’s use of semiautonomous drones, the US military’s first autonomous flight of a Black Hawk helicopter last November, and the successful testing of AI algorithms in US U-2 spy planes in 2020, it’s clear that autonomous combat represents the next front in modern warfare. But just how completely will AI take over our skies, and what does it mean for the human pilots left on the ground?

The VISTA X-62A (short for Variable In-flight Simulation Test Aircraft) has always been ahead of its time. Built in the 1980s and based on an F-16D Block 30 Peace Marble Il, the plane previously held the designation NF-16D and became the US Airforce Test Pilot School’s go-to simulation machine in the early 1990s. A versatile and adaptable training tool boasting open systems architecture, the VISTA can be fitted with software that allows it to mimic the performance characteristics of multiple aircraft, from heavy bombers to ultra-light fighter jets.

 

[Heartbang]

Food for Thought:

US took their first flight with an AI controlled F16.

The US Air Force Is Moving Fast on AI-Piloted Fighter Jets

After successful autonomous flight tests in December, the military is ramping up its plans to bring artificial intelligence to the skies.

webcache.googleusercontent.com

TFX has to be able to be remotely controlled.

 

[Ripley]

And it’s getting more and more realistic everyday now that the human factor might totally be omitted from the 7th generation proper combat jets.
The age we are living, huh

 

[Afif]

And it’s getting more and more realistic everyday now that the human factor might totally be omitted from the 7th generation proper combat jets.
The age we are living, huh

Nope, I will disagree.

 

[Sanchez]

MMU or any other jet surely can be remotely operated in the future, either autonomously or by being slaved to another that has a pilot.

But, if you're removing the pilot from the airframe and all that comes with it, the seat, control arrangements, glass cockpit, canopy, oxygen supply and so on, why not just build a drone for much cheaper that doesn't need to make up space for all that load? Take Kızılelma or XQ-58. They are so much cheaper to build and operate than a regular fighter jet. What's the advantage of an aircraft that is optionally manned, apart from recreating the scene from the Stealth movie finale?

 

[Zafer]

TFX is a smart device just like the TOGG is; you can upgrade its software to make it smarter by the day.

 

[what]

TFX is a smart device just like the TOGG is; you can upgrade its software to make it smarter by the day.

If the hardware is still good enough to run the upgrades.

 

[Combat-Master]

If the hardware is still good enough to run the upgrades.

Well then the hardware can be upgraded too no ?

 

[Heartbang]

If the hardware is still good enough to run the upgrades.

AFAIK having a modular architecture/easy upgradability is a requirement for an aircraft to be considered 5th gen.

 

[Zafer]

The upgrades I mentioned are basically upgrades to make the aircraft smarter and is basically meant to improve the utilization of the existing installed hardware. This is because the initial software may not be as good as the software when the system is mature. This is like maturing the software as everything starts immature at the beginning if you do not have all the time in the world in your hand before you deploy the initial product. Upgrades to the software upon change of hardware must also be in store as a given.

 

[Ripley]

@Zafer

Here’s what I gathered on hardware - software relation (interaction?)

This bit is from 2014.
It involves a new software upgrade for the B2 bomber and it was a part of The Flexible Strike program back then. Northrop, as a part of the program, eliminated all stand alone SW and combined them all under a single program.

Northrop Grumman B-2 software upgrade reviewed

New approach promises reduced maintenance costs, increased mission flexibility.

www.aerospacemanufacturinganddesign.com

And more recently, in December 2022 the “USAF introduced a new software factory, called ‘Spirit Realm’, to enhance the operational capability of the B-2 Spirit bomber fleet”.
They aim to fulfill four objective there. Fourth one, in particular, is interesting. It’s simply war-winning capability upgrades to B-2.
Their mission is to shorten “the software upgrade timelines to three months, unlike conventional code development/testing that took 18-24 months for launch”.

USAF introduces new software factory for B-2 Spirit aircraft

The US Air Force (USAF) has introduced a new software factory, called ‘Spirit Realm’, to enhance the operational capability of the B-2 Spirit bomber fleet.

www.airforce-technology.com

And I remember Mr. Bayraktar mentioning at an interview that TB-2 operators can download SW upgrades like an app user as they are developed and released.

So, what I understand is that TFX SW (this also goes for any Turkish UAV and UCAV) can simply be upgraded as long as the developers come up with SW and the HW is capable of interacting with the newly developed SW.
B2 on the other hand was desigNed 20 - 25 years ago and its SW was not “modular”.

Am I on the right track here or really far off?

If you kindly reply, Please remember that you are talking to a layman with limited technical knowledge

Thank you

 

[Zafer]

@Zafer

Here’s what I gathered on hardware - software relation (interaction?)

This bit is from 2014.
It involves a new software upgrade for the B2 bomber and it was a part of The Flexible Strike program back then. Northrop, as a part of the program, eliminated all stand alone SW and combined them all under a single program.

Northrop Grumman B-2 software upgrade reviewed

New approach promises reduced maintenance costs, increased mission flexibility.

www.aerospacemanufacturinganddesign.com

And more recently, in December 2022 the “USAF introduced a new software factory, called ‘Spirit Realm’, to enhance the operational capability of the B-2 Spirit bomber fleet”.
They aim to fulfill four objective there. Fourth one, in particular, is interesting. It’s simply war-winning capability upgrades to B-2.
Their mission is to shorten “the software upgrade timelines to three months, unlike conventional code development/testing that took 18-24 months for launch”.

USAF introduces new software factory for B-2 Spirit aircraft

The US Air Force (USAF) has introduced a new software factory, called ‘Spirit Realm’, to enhance the operational capability of the B-2 Spirit bomber fleet.

www.airforce-technology.com

And I remember Mr. Bayraktar mentioning at an interview that TB-2 operators can download SW upgrades like an app user as they are developed and released.

So, what I understand is that TFX SW (this also goes for any Turkish UAV and UCAV) can simply be upgraded as long as the developers come up with SW and the HW is capable of interacting with the newly developed SW.
B2 on the other hand was desigNed 20 - 25 years ago and its SW was not “modular”.

Am I on the right track here or really far off?

If you kindly reply, Please remember that you are talking to a layman with limited technical knowledge

Thank you

Simply put you don't have the time to put all the wisdom in the software you are making for a product as it can take too long. You want to roll out the product into service and do upgrades and improvements as you go. Therefore every system software takes several upgrades before it matures and become satisfactory. In the realm of autonomous driving and flying the industry has not even achieved driving of a car. Flying of a many million dollar strategically important plane will take many many upgrades to get there. In the realm of passenger planes the industry has not even been able to eliminate the second pilot yet.

I am an amateur coder myself. When the first time I made a software to sell on an app store the software was faceless meaning it did not have an interface. It just ran and generated images from a mobile phones camera and archived them. When I made the fourth release it had everything, beyond my expectations. It was a java app for a button non-smart phone. So it should take some iterations to get there.

 

[Ripley]

Simply put you don't have the time to put all the wisdom in the software you are making for a product as it can take too long. You want to roll out the product into service and do upgrades and improvements as you go. Therefore every system software takes several upgrades before it matures and become satisfactory. In the realm of autonomous driving and flying the industry has not even achieved driving of a car. Flying of a many million dollar strategically important plane will take many many upgrades to get there. In the realm of passenger planes the industry has not even been able to eliminate the second pilot yet.

I am an amateur coder myself. When the first time I made a software to sell on an app store the software was faceless meaning it did not have an interface. It just ran and generated images from a mobile phones camera and archived them. When I made the fourth release it had everything, beyond my expectations. It was a java app for a button non-smart phone. So it should take some iterations to get there.

So as long as the HW and SW is capable of interacting you can develop any SW and its iterations for required applications.
And this, in theory, can go all the way up to autonomous planes, not tomorrow, not next year, not within the decade but eventually, right?

 

[Zafer]

So as long as the HW and SW is capable of interacting you can develop any SW and its iterations for required applications.
And this, in theory, can go all the way up to autonomous planes, not tomorrow, not next year, not within the decade but eventually, right?

There are 5 levels of automation in cars; 5 is fully self driven. I think we are between three and four right now. Automation of flying cars is a hot topic too but the industry thinks there is still decades to full automation. It will be even more for fighters. But they will wisen up like how humans wisen up from a baby to a child. From performing basic tasks to performing more complicated tasks or an entire mission.

 

[MADDOG]

Side and main weapon bay doors of the MMU/TF-X.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1634952055948468224

 

[what]

Well then the hardware can be upgraded too no ?

Yes, of course, but that is not as easy as an over the air update to your phone.

 

[MADDOG]

TAI is hiring.

"We are looking for colleagues who will jointly design the flight control system of our National Combat Aircraft."

If anyone is interested.