Video | U.S. Military Drone Fires Air-to-Air Missile for the First Time, Is It Impressive? Expert Analysis

Recently, the U.S. Air Force announced the successful use of the YFQ-44A unmanned combat aircraft, completing its first live-fire test of air-to-air missiles. During the test, the unmanned combat aircraft launched air-to-air missiles, successfully hitting a virtual digital target. Some netizens asked, what does it mean to hit a virtual digital target with live ammunition? Is it impressive?

Military commentator Song Xinzhi: The U.S. military's YFQ-44A did complete the process of launching a missile in a placeholder manner, but the target was fake; the missile did not actually collide with or destroy a real target. How to determine if it hit or not is based on various ground algorithms that assess whether it hit or missed, which is quite abstract.

This live-fire test hitting a virtual target validated the drone's flight control software and AI air combat software, intercepting the target and launching missiles at the target's pre-positioned point. This set of software can successfully complete the task without interference.

The second validation showed that when the drone launches air-to-air missiles, it will not damage itself, but there are three shortcomings compared to real combat:

First, the target is "fed" to the drone from the ground.

Second, there is no way to verify the missile's flight, tracking, and interception.

Third, there are no interference conditions from real combat, such as the opponent's evasion and deception; these kinds of counteractions are absent, making it incomparable to actual target practice.