The US Air Force has launched a $6 billion contract for 1,000 AI-piloted fighter jets that can fly 30ft above the ground at 600mph and make moves that are too dangerous for manned planes.
The jets will bolster the current ailing and outdated fleet that leaders say is the smallest and oldest since the Air Force became a separate service in 1947.
The new fleet will be able to perform riskier maneuvers than unmanned aircraft, and will escort and protect crewed planes, carry weapons to attack targets on the ground and in the air and act as scouts.
Five companies are bidding for the contract: Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, General Atomics and Anduril Industries, but only the Boeing Ghost Bat has been flown publicly.
The Pentagon will choose two of the companies by summer to start building the jets and hopes to have hundreds completed within five years at an estimated cost of $10 to $20 million per plane.
The drones, known as Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), will be smaller than existing fighters at 20 to 30 feet long. They will be made to deter China and its growing military strength.
The newest jets will travel at just below the speed of sound, carrying missiles and weaponry to fire at enemy aircraft and targets on the ground.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told the Wall Street Journal: 'They offer a lot of things that traditional crewed fighter planes just aren’t designed to do.'
The newest models will be a step up from the small drones have become a key feature of modern battlefields in recent years in Ukraine and parts of the Middle East.
Larger drones, like the new fleet, are needed to tackle the vast distances of the western Pacific.
The planes rely on artificial intelligence to fly autonomously and adapt to changing conditions in combat.
One of the main new developers of flying software is Shield AI.
Their technology helped an uncrewed F-16 regularly beat some of the best Air Force pilots in simulated missions, allowing their planes to skim the ground at 600 miles an hour.
Ground controllers could manage 10 of the drones at once or they can be programmed to fly in swarms, overwhelming and confusing the enemy.
The planes should also be cheaper than manned aircraft as they are designed to be expendable, flying one or two missions before they are retired or destroyed, meaning they can be made with cheaper parts.
