Move over, Maverick: artificial intelligence (AI) may soon be the next hot fighter jock in the skies. An AI agent recently flew Lockheed Martin's VISTA X-62A for more than 17 hours at the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School (USAF TPS) at Edwards Air Force Base in California--the first time AI was used on a tactical aircraft. The experimental training aircraft is expected to lay the groundwork for a coming wave of jets piloted entirely by computers. The VISTA, developed by Lockheed's Skunk Works and Calspan Corporation, is fitted with software that allows it to mimic the performance characteristics of other aircraft. The test plane is a modified F-16D Block 30 Peace Marble Il aircraft upgraded with Block 40 avionics.

An artificial intelligence agent recently flew the Lockheed Martin VISTA X-62A training aircraft for over 17 hours. VISTA (which stands for Variable In-flight Simulation Test Aircraft) can use software to simulate the performance characteristics of other aircraft. The flight took place during a testing period in December. This is the first time that AI has been engaged in such a way on a tactical aircraft, Lockheed says. The aim is to use the platform to test aircraft designs that can be flown autonomously.

Lockheed Martin has partnered with Red Hat to enable small military platforms to handle increased artificial intelligence workloads.

Artificial intelligence startup Domino Data Lab Inc. said Tuesday it raised $100 million in new funding amid increased business interest in tools that help data scientists build and deploy AI applications. The funding will be used to scale its sales organization and build out its machine-learning platform's features and functions, said Nick Elprin, Domino Data's chief executive and one of its co-founders. Domino Data has raised $228 million since its founding in 2013. Private-equity firm Great Hill Partners led the series F round with participation from graphics-chip maker Nvidia Corp. and existing investors Coatue Management, Highland Capital Partners and Sequoia Capital. The company didn't disclose its valuation.

An artificial intelligence algorithm defeated a human F-16 fighter pilot in a virtual dogfight sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Thursday. After two days of competition, the winning algorithm of Darpa's Air Combat Evolution program took on a human pilot in a Lockheed Martin (LMT) F-16 simulator Thursday. Artificial intelligence teams from Boeing (BA) subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences, EpiSys Science, Georgia Tech Research Institute, Heron Systems, Lockheed Martin, Perspecta Labs, PhysicsAI, and SoarTech entered the competition. In a semifinal Thursday, Lockheed beat Physics AI. Heron defeated Aurora in the other semifinal and then took down Lockheed in the final.

One thing about airplanes--especially ones that fly from aircraft carriers, where they're battered by saltwater and tough deck landings--is that they need lots of spare parts that are not always on hand. Instead of flying in new parts, though, future Navy ships may be able to make new ones to order. Picutre an intelligent, laser-wielding robot that can analyze the damage and 3D-print the needed titanium alloy parts from an onboard supply of metallic dust. This is one glimpse of the future proposed by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), which today announced a two-year, $5.8 million contract to create a new generation of super-smart 3D printers. The printers would not only make parts on order wherever they are needed, but can "observe, learn and make decisions by themselves," according to Lockheed.

"Ready, fire, aim!" has never had much of a positive connotation, either in financial or military circles, but the Navy's newest weapon could be changing that, at least somewhat. The Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM), set to replace the service's 40-year-old Harpoon missile, takes a technological step forward in long-range strikes, using sensors and on-board artificial intelligence to let a target's own defenses work against it. It would allow a missile to be launched with less-than-perfect targeting information because it will be able to find the correct target while in route. Instead of just using its own radar systems to locate a target, the LRASM uses a passive sensor to identify the target's own radar signals, which warships always have powered up to detect attack. Meanwhile, the missile's advanced algorithms sort through incoming data to ensure that the identity of the target – say, that it's a cruiser and not a cargo ship – and to zero in on the ship's most vulnerable spot.

Chile's Atacama Desert makes for great stargazing. The dry air and sparse settlement are a major draw for astronomical observatories--the European Southern Observatory, the Carnegie Institution for Science, and the Llano de Chajnantor Observatory all operate multiple telescope sites on the region's mountaintops. The desert wind, however, is a problem. The air rushes around and through the enclosures that hold these massive but sensitive, precise instruments. Typically, observatories have responded with heavy mounts and robust structures that keep the mirrors steady amid the turbulence.

It's been just a few months since Lockheed Martin gave the US Army the most powerful laser weapon ever developed, a ground vehicle–mounted system that can burn through tanks and knock mortars out of the sky. Now the US Air Force wants its own toy, so Lockheed's engineers are back in the lab, crafting the kind of weapon Poe Dameron could get down with. Decades after science fiction writers and directors imagined worlds of killer beams flying back and forth, reality is catching up. This spring defense contractor Raytheon became the first to destroy a target with a laser fired from a helicopter. Raytheon is also building a laser-firing, drone-killing dune buggy.

You might be impatient for a self-driving car that can roll you from the bar to your house when you're too buzzed to drive, but autonomous vehicles have bigger problems to worry about. Since 2000, the fire season has grown longer, and the damage more severe. The US spent more than $2 billion fighting the flames last year--and it lost six firefighters doing it. The solution, according to Lockheed Martin, is taking the human out of the battle. In a series of demonstration flights last week, the defense contractor showed off four unmanned aircraft that join forces to beat back the flames.