PLA deploys AI in mock warplane battles, ‘ trains both pilots and AIs’

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army ( PLA) Air Force has started to deploy artificial intelligence ( AI) as simulated opponents in pilots’ aerial combat training so pilots can not only hone their decision- making and combat skills against fastcalculating computers, but the AIs can also learn from each engagement, and have already bested their human opponents on many occasions.

An aviation brigade affiliated with the PLA Central Theater Command Air Force held a training simulation in early summer, in which Fang Guoyu, a group leader of the brigade and the champion in a previous confrontational combat exercise, was shot down in a mock aerial battle against an AI aircraft in a simulator, the PLA Daily reported on Saturday.

“The AI has shown adept flight control skills and errorless tactical decisions, making it a valuable opponent to hone our capabilities,” Du Jianfeng, commander of the brigade, was quoted as saying. The brigade has been integrating simulated and AI- assisted training in daily training in recent years, he said.

Simulated training can boost training efficiency, save costs and lower flight risks, and with the rapid development of technology, it has become a common goal for major military powers around the world to take advantage of training simulations, the PLA Daily said.

The AI is also learning from the pilots as it gathers data from each training session. “At first, it was not difficult to win against the AI. But by studying data, each engagement became a chance for it to improve,” Fang said, noting that in a combat session, Fang used a hardthought tactics against the AI and finally beat it by a small margin, but in the next session, the AI used the same tactics against Fang to defeat him.

AIs can also be integrated into warplanes and assist pilots in combat, for example, by calculating the best tactical options for pilots to choose by taking the whole battlefield situation into consideration, at a much better efficiency than a human brain under very complicated situations, an expert said.