The spark becomes a flame, and within seconds, a satellite dish swirling overhead picks up on the anomaly and triggers an alarm. An autonomous helicopter takes flight and zooms toward the fire, using sensors to locate the blaze and artificial intelligence to generate a plan of attack. It measures the wind speed and fire movement, communicating constantly with the unmanned helicopter behind it, and the one behind that. Los Angeles knows how to weather a crisis -- or two or three. Angelenos are tapping into that resilience, striving to build a city for everyone.

Fox News contributor Brett Velicovich joins'Fox & Friends First' to discuss Secretary's Hegseth's sweeping Army transformation, how Russia has responded to the U.S. minerals deal with Ukraine and the military bolstering drone technology. This is how the Army will island hop in the Pacific to fend off China. And by the way, Chinese President Xi Jinping has nothing like it. With a stunning announcement, the Army did more than ax 40 generals and open the door to AI. The Army bet its future on this radical aircraft, whose engines swivel to take off and land like a helicopter, or fly high and fast like an airplane.

The United States military just inched one step closer to bringing autonomous helicopters to the battlefield. Like most strange feats of advanced military technology, this one comes from The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, better known simply as "DARPA." On Tuesday, DARPA said a UH-60A Black Hawk helicopter outfitted with its experimental Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) system safely completed a test flight without anyone in the chopper. The 30-minute test flight occurred over the weekend above a U.S. Army installation at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. DARPA describes its Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) as a "tailorable, drop-in, removable kit," meant to add sophisticated automation to pre-built aircraft at a fraction of the cost of upgrading individual models with new, advanced avionics and software.

A fully autonomous Black Hawk helicopter has taken to the skies over the US without a human pilot on board for the first time. A partnership between Lockheed Martin Sikorsky and the Defence Armed Research Projects Agency (DARPA), it took off from Fort Campbell in Kentucky on February 5. Without anyone on board, the UH-60A Black Hawk completed a 30 minute flight above the US army installation, with a second flight held on February 7. It comes with an optionally piloted cockpit, that has to be switched from pilot, to autonomous mode - allowing an onboard computer brain to control the vehicle. During the flight the Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) autonomous pilot was presented with a series of simulated obstacles to overcome. It had to execute a series of pedal turns, maneurvers and straightaways before carrying out a perfect landing back on the Fort Campbell runway - without any human intervention.

Streamlining multiple targeting sensors to destroy long-range targets, arming forward- positioned robots to penetrate enemy defenses and receiving organized weather-specific terrain mapping from nearby drones - are all emerging combat dynamics increasingly made possible by AI-enabled weapons and technologies. New applications of AI are consolidating data from otherwise disparate sensor systems, analyzing seemingly limitless amounts of targeting data in seconds and instantly sifting through hours of drone video to massively improve attack options and shorten "sensor-to-shooter" time. "We are developing an AI stack regarding how we pull together the sensors, computing layer and analytics to manage the data," Col. Doug Matty, Army AI Task Force Deputy Director, told Warrior in an interview. New algorithms, AI-enabled computer processing and high-speed networking are all specific elements of work now underway with the Army's AI Task Force, an emerging Army effort to collaborate with industry and academia, find technology breakthroughs and develop new applications for AI, Matty explained. The Task Force is now working on prototyping systems for integration onto UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, Long-Range Precision Fires systems and the Army's emerging fleet of Next-Gen Combat Vehicles, he said.

The Lynx Infantry Fighting Vehicle - file photo. Streamlining multiple targeting sensors to destroy long-range targets, arming forward-positioned robots to penetrate enemy defenses and receiving organized weather-specific terrain mapping from nearby drones - are all emerging combat dynamics increasingly made possible by AI-enabled weapons and technologies. New applications of AI are consolidating data from otherwise disparate sensor systems, analyzing seemingly limitless amounts of targeting data in seconds and instantly sifting through hours of drone video to massively improve attack options and shorten "sensor-to-shooter" time. "We are developing an AI stack regarding how we pull together the sensors, computing layer and analytics to manage the data," Col. Doug Matty, Army AI Task Force Deputy Director, told Warrior in an interview. New algorithms, AI-enabled computer processing and high-speed networking are all specific elements of work now underway with the Army's AI Task Force, an emerging Army effort to collaborate with industry and academia, find technology breakthroughs and develop new applications for AI, Matty explained.

In his new job as a commercial drone pilot, former Army helicopter pilot Tony Zimlich directs a drone-powered field site inspection of a Pennsylvania solar farm. In his new job as a commercial drone pilot, former Army helicopter pilot Tony Zimlich directs a drone-powered field site inspection of a Pennsylvania solar farm. On a recent sunny afternoon at a solar farm outside Philadelphia, Pa., commercial drone pilots Tony Zimlich and Gunner Goldie are preparing for flight. Dressed in hard hats and matching yellow vests, they run through a series of safety and equipment checks, and survey the surrounding terrain and airspace, before picking up what looks like a pair of oversized video game controllers. Then, with a streak of beeps and whirs, their drone -- about the size of a milk crate -- rises steadily into the sky above.