Top Gun Maverick F/A-18 Shows Cutting-Edge AI-Enabled Tech

Video Above: Patriot Interceptor Missiles & F-35s Could Defend NATOs Eastern Flank Together

By Kris Osborn – President & Editor-In-Chief, Warrior Maven

Making instant maneuvers amid air combat to elude incoming enemy fire, autonomously shifting course to avoid colliding with terrain or aircraft and drawing upon advanced, Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled computer algorithms to process enemy targeting data… are all critical areas of focus for Air Force trainers as they prepare for great power war moving decades into the future.

Not only will future air war incorporate more speed, range, stealth and lethality, but it is expected to progressively call upon new levels of autonomy, making the need to prepare for and train against a wide range of contingencies extremely critical. This concept forms the basis of the Air Force’s “Red Teaming” training concept wherein groups of air platforms confront specific anticipated enemy threats in realistic combat scenarios. Increasingly, advances in computer technology make it possible for simulations to not only approximate, but replicate enemy aircraft, weapons, maneuver tactics and even computing power through advanced computer simulations.

It is a training focus increasingly being emphasized by the Air Force and Navy, of course in close coordination with actual live-fire training scenarios through exercises such as Red Flag. As part of this integrated process training through simulated networking technologies is being measurably improved by the Air Force in coordination with their industry partners.

The US Navy and Air Force are working on a new generation of training technologies intended to prepare their fighter aircraft for a new class of Russian and Chinese air threats. For instance, it is certainly conceivable that Russia’s Su-57 or China’s J-20 stealth 5th-generation aircraft could present new challenges to US Air Force and Navy fighters.

F/A-18 & F-35s | P5 Combat Training System (P5CTS) 

Cubic Mission and Performance Solutions, a division of Cubic Corporation, was recently awarded an Air Force contract for its P5 Combat Training System (P5CTS). The P5 System Security Update (SSU), a drop-in encryption solution is part of a larger technology upgrade intended to massively improve Air Force and Navy pilot training for advanced, high-threat combat scenarios using advanced computer simulations, wireless networks and AI-enabled data organization. In fact, in an effort to accurately replicate high-tech modern weapons systems, producers of Top Gun Maverick put a P5 on Tom Cruise’s F/A-18.