Artificial intelligence pilots Air Force fighter jet in successful California test

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (KABC) -- Will Maverick from "Top Gun" be obsolete one day?

The U.S. Defense Department is disclosing that A.I. programs successfully made a dozen test flights in an F-16 over the California desert.

The flights in early December included advanced fighter maneuvers simulating combat, also known as dogfighting.

The jet stayed in the air for more than 17 hours during the flights at Edwards Air Force Base.

The flights demonstrated that A.I. agents can control a full-scale fighter jet and provided invaluable live-flight data.

The goal of the program is to develop an A.I. autopilot system that can navigate, fly, collect intelligence and even engage in combat.

The Defense Department has been working on the A.I. program since 2019 and has run dogfights with simulators in which the computer defeated a human pilot.

Testing and research in the program is continuing before it will be put into real-world use.