The U.S. Air Force said Tuesday that its X-62 VISTA experimental aircraft completed 27 AI-controlled intercepts during eight flights at Edwards Air Force Base in April. During the tests, an artificial intelligence agent used live infrared sensor information to autonomously maneuver the aircraft against a T-38 target. The HAVE HEAT test program used Lockheed Martin’s Legion Pod, an infrared search-and-track sensor carried by the X-62, which tracked the T-38 and supplied its data to the AI agent. According to Lockheed Martin, previous autonomy testing relied more heavily on simulated target information, while the April flights allowed the AI system to respond directly to information from an operational airborne sensor. Lt. Col. Joshua Strafaccia, dean of faculty for research at the Air Force Test Pilot School, said the program represents a meaningful expansion of avionics capability towards integrated, AI-driven control. A second program, called HAVE HOLIDAYS, ran alongside the intercept testing, evaluating safety rules intended to prevent autonomous aircraft from exceeding limits established by operators and testing additional computing hardware. The Air Force said ground testing for the two programs was completed within three months. The X-62 is a heavily modified Block 30 F-16D previously used in human-versus-AI air combat testing under DARPA’s Air Combat Evolution program. Planned upgrades include an RTX PhantomStrike radar, additional computing and sensor capacity and modern network data communications. The Air Force Test Pilot School