EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16^[1] fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of U.S. airpower. But the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence, not a human pilot. And riding in the front seat^[2] was Air Force^[3] Secretary Frank Kendall.

AI marks one of the biggest advances^[4] in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning for an AI-enabled fleet of more than 1,000 unmanned warplanes to be operating by 2028.

It was fitting that the dogfight took place at Edwards Air Force Base^[5], a vast desert facility where Chuck Yeager broke the speed of sound and the military has incubated its most secret aerospace advances. Inside classified simulators and buildings with layers of shielding against surveillance, a new test-pilot generation is training AI agents to fly in war. Kendall traveled here to see AI fly in real time and make a public statement of confidence in its future role in air combat^[6].

"It's a security risk not to have it. At this point, we have to have it," Kendall said in an interview with The Associated Press after he landed. The AP, along with NBC, was granted permission to witness the secret flight on the condition that it would not be reported until it was complete because of operational security concerns.

The AI-controlled F-16, called Vista, flew Kendall in lightning-fast maneuvers at more than 550 miles an hour that put pressure on his body at five times the force of gravity. It went nearly nose to nose with a second human-piloted F-16 as both aircraft raced within 1,000 feet of each other, twisting and looping to try force their opponent into vulnerable positions.

At the end of the hourlong flight, Kendall climbed out of the cockpit grinning. He said he'd seen enough during his flight that he'd trust this still-learning AI with the ability to decide whether or not to launch weapons.

There's a lot of opposition to that idea. Arms control experts and humanitarian groups are deeply concerned^[7] that AI one day might be able to autonomously drop bombs that kill people without further human consultation, and they are seeking greater restrictions on its use^[8].

"There are widespread and serious concerns about ceding life-and-death decisions to sensors and software," the International Committee of the Red Cross has warned. Autonomous weapons "are an immediate cause of concern and demand an urgent, international political response."

The military's shift to AI-enabled planes is driven by security, cost and strategic capability. If the U.S. and China should end up in conflict^[9], for example, today's Air Force fleet of expensive, manned fighters will be vulnerable because of gains on both sides in electronic warfare, space and air defense systems. China's air force is on pace to outnumber the U.S. and it is also amassing a fleet of flying unmanned weapons.

Future war scenarios envision swarms of American unmanned aircraft providing an advance attack on enemy defenses to give the U.S. the ability to penetrate an airspace without high risk to pilot lives. But the shift is also driven by money. The Air Force is still hampered by production delays and cost overruns in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter^[10], which will cost an estimated of $1.7 trillion.

Smaller and cheaper AI-controlled unmanned jets are the way ahead, Kendall said.

Vista's military operators say no other country in the world has an AI jet like it, where the software first learns on millions of data points in a simulator, then tests its conclusions during actual flights. That real-world performance data is then put back into the simulator where the AI then processes its to learn more.

China has AI, but there's no indication it has found a way to run tests outside a simulator. And, like a junior officer first learning tactics, some lessons can only be learned in the air, Vista's test pilots said.

Until you actually fly, "it's all guesswork," chief test pilot Bill Gray said. "And the longer it takes you to figure that out, the longer it takes before you have useful systems."

Vista flew its first AI-controlled dogfight in September 2023, and there have only been about two dozen similar flights since. But the programs are learning so quickly from each engagement that some AI versions getting tested on Vista are already beating human pilots in air-to-air combat.

The pilots at this base are aware that in some respects, they may be training their replacements or shaping a future construct where fewer of them are needed^[11].

But they also say they would not want to be up in the sky against an adversary that has AI-controlled aircraft if the U.S. does not also have its own fleet.

"We have to keep running. And we have to run fast," Kendall said.

HONOLULU -- Amid a gathering of top defense leaders from across the Pacific in Hawaii, Pentagon officials said Thursday that the U.S. not only needs to grow its ties in the region but also bolster the number of troops there to deter China.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, while standing alongside his counterparts from Australia, Japan and the Philippines, said that the four leaders "discussed how we can deepen our trilateral cooperation to strengthen stability and security."

However, one military official also said that the U.S. needs "an improved force posture and it needs to be west of the International Date Line ... so that we can have a lethal and combat credible force" closer to China, Russia and North Korea.

Read Next: Temporary Promotions for Army Noncommissioned Officers to End in June^[1]

Austin's day of meetings with his counterparts in the region comes as China continues to expand its campaign of harassing and threatening nearby countries and their ships in the South China Sea.

On Tuesday, the Philippine coast guard announced that two of its ships were rammed and shot with water cannons^[2] by vessels from the Chinese coast guard. The incident is just the latest in a growing number of skirmishes that are only increasing in frequency.

Defense officials at the Pentagon told reporters that incidents like this are "really worrisome operational behavior and coercion" and "a topic that we're going to focus on together."

Earlier in April, Austin assured Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that the long-standing mutual defense treaty "extends to both countries' armed forces^[3], public vessels, and aircraft -- including those of its coast guard -- anywhere in the Pacific, including the South China Sea," according to Pentagon spokesman^[4] Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder.

However, Gilberto Teodoro Jr., the Philippine defense secretary, told reporters that he didn't want to discuss "a scenario when or in what occasions the [defense treaty] may be invoked,” before noting that its invocation "will be a political decision, at the end of the day."

But as incidents between China and the Philippines continue to simmer, the U.S. military official said there is a worry that there aren't enough U.S. service members in the region to respond to a possible, future incident or offer "a lethal and combat credible force forward."

The military official noted to reporters that, while the Indo-Pacific has about 300,000 assigned forces, only about 80,000 of those are west of the International Date Line, which passes through the center of the Pacific, and the bulk of those are in Japan.

However, simply moving troops into the region permanently is not on the table since there are both legal and political constraints.

In February, the Philippines agreed to increase the number of military camps^[5] that the U.S. will be allowed to maintain in the country to nine. However, those are not bases with permanently stationed troops but rather locations that the U.S. military has access to should it need them.

Meanwhile, Australia recently inked a historic deal, commonly called "AUKUS," that will see the U.S. provide the island nation with its much-coveted, nuclear-powered submarine technology. However, the military official noted that "Australia's constitution prevents us basing in Australia."

The solution, officials say, is to continue to build relationships with allies and increase the tempo of exercises and troop rotations through the region.

Austin said that he and the other leaders are "looking to conduct more maritime exercises and activities among our four countries," while officials at the Pentagon said that the aim for the meetings was to generate "'no kidding' proposals for collective action."

"We need to create opportunities for training environments, for locations that they can do rotational visits to," the military official said.

Austin acknowledged that "we're clear-eyed about the challenges that exist throughout the region and so we'll need to continue to work together."

"But that's why we're here -- because we share a common vision," Austin said.

Related: Army Planning Big Boost to Pacific Operations Next Year with More Training, Deployments and Equipment^[6]