US fighter pilots have, for the first time, received real-time battle directions from an AI system during a Pentagon-led joint exercise — a milestone in weaving artificial intelligence directly into combat operations.
The test featured an aerial battle management solution called Starsage, which guided F-16, F/A-18, and F-35 pilots with tactical instructions normally handled by controllers on the ground, Fox News reported.
Built by Virginia-based autonomy firm Raft AI, the tech slashed response times from minutes to seconds, pushing instant threat alerts and mission updates straight to the cockpit to give pilots one-on-one support.
For Dogfights and Commercial Flight Paths
Air battle managers are basically the tactical version of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) air traffic controllers, making sure aircraft don’t collide and stay in safe air corridors.
Shubhi Mishra, CEO at Raft AI, claimed that systems such as Starsage could have even prevented the midair collision between a commercial regional airliner and a Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan National Airport earlier this year.
“It’s just data, and then execution on the data,” she said. “If the FAA had this technology, that never would have happened.”
AI Copilot in Modern Warfare
Mishra emphasized that blending AI with human judgment is essential as defense leaders weigh how long pilots will stay in the cockpit for warfare — and whether the Pentagon will keep building new generations of fighter jets.
“Humans should always be in the loop,” she explained.
“In terms of the technology being capable of doing this, I think it’s already here. The question is, do we let it?”
