巴黎——法国空军将与法国武器装备总署以及国防人工智能机构合作，计划于2028年让有人驾驶战斗机与作战无人机协同飞行，这是名为“Hypairion”的项目的一部分，该项目旨在在作战航空领域开展人工智能实验。
PARIS — France’s Air Force, together with the country’s Directorate General for Armament and the agency for defense artificial intelligence, plans to fly crewed fighter jets in collaboration with combat drones in 2028, part of a project to experiment with AI in combat aviation dubbed Hypairion.
空军能力发展办公室主任塞德里克上校在周四于此间举行的新闻发布会上表示，该项目旨在为作战飞机开发开放、模块化的架构，并研发主权人工智能技术，使政府对相关技术拥有更大的控制权，而不必在关键系统上依赖企业。
The project seeks to develop open, modular architecture for combat aircraft and sovereign AI technology that gives the government greater control over the tech, rather than having to rely on companies for critical systems, said Col. Cédric, head of the Air Force capability-development office, in a press briefing here on Thursday.
随着人工智能日益强大，欧洲的空客和BAE系统公司，以及美国的通用原子公司和Anduril等企业，都在利用该技术开发协同作战飞机，也被称为“忠诚僚机”。虽然其中许多项目由企业主导，但法国的项目将把部分关键技术置于国家控制之下。
As AI becomes more powerful, the likes of Airbus and BAE Systems in Europe and General Atomics and Anduril in the United States are leveraging the technology to develop collaborative combat aircraft, also referred to as “loyal wingmen.”While many of those projects are company-driven, the French project would keep some of the critical technology under state control.
“Hypairion的真正意义在于，为空军和我们的平台配备开放、模块化且归政府所有的架构，”塞德里克上校说。根据法国武装部队部对军方人员的政策，他仅以名字身份被提及。“我们的目标是摆脱那些将传感器和武器系统锁定的专有系统。”该部国防人工智能机构负责为该项目提供多个领域的主权人工智能技术，尤其是指挥与控制以及任务自主性，该机构负责人工智能应用的副主任蒂博上校说。
“What Hypairion is really about is equipping the Air Force and our platforms with architectures that are open, modular and owned by the government,” Col. Cédric said. He was identified only by his first name, in line with the Armed Forces Ministry’s policy for military staff. “Our goal is to move away from proprietary systems that lock down sensors and weaponry.”The Ministerial Agency for Defence AI will be in charge of providing sovereign AI technology for the project in several areas, particularly command and control as well as mission autonomy, said Col. Thibault, deputy director for AI applications at the agency, known as Amiad.
该机构简称Amiad。他将任务自主性描述为协助飞行员进行任务规划、飞行中决策和任务后分析的人工智能。
He described mission autonomy as AI that assists pilots with mission planning, in-flight decisions and post-mission analysis.
Amiad已经在法国陆军Pendragon机器人项目中利用AI协调不同平台，并提议为Hypairion创建一个产业中心，让传统航空航天企业和较小的初创公司都能与该项目互动，这一做法已在Pendragon中经过验证。
Amiad already uses AI to coordinate different platforms in the French Army’s Pendragon robotics project, and proposes to create an industrial hub for Hypairion where both traditional aerospace firms and smaller startups can interact with the project, an approach tested in Pendragon.
“Hypairion项目的要点是让法国国家保留对整体架构的控制权，并能够整合最有能力的初创公司或工业企业，”Thibault上校说。他表示，企业可能加入或离开该项目，而Hypairion将把相关能力保留在内部。
“The point of the Hypairion project is for the French state to retain control of the overall architecture and to be able to integrate the most capable startups or industrial companies,” Col. Thibault said. He said companies might join and leave the project, while Hypairion retains its capabilities in-house.
据Cédric上校称，法国空军正在蒙德马桑空军基地改装两架“幻影”2000战斗机，使其成为AI测试平台，加装一台新计算机，从而能够从今年年底开始测试“各种用例”。位于法国西南部的蒙德马桑是Escadron de chasse et d’expérimentation的驻地，这是一支专门负责测试与评估的战斗机中队。
The Air Force is modifying two Mirage 2000s fighters at Mont-de-Marsan airbase to become AI test beds, adding a new computer that will allow to test “all kinds of use cases” starting by the end of the year, according to Col. Cédric. Mont-de-Marsan in southwest France is home to the Escadron de chasse et d’expérimentation, a dedicated fighter squadron for testing and evaluation.
Cédric上校说，开发将是渐进式的，Hypairion的第一阶段不一定是要具备作战能力，而是将研究能耗和系统接口等领域。正在考虑的首批用例包括利用AI优化飞行路径，或优化诸如何时部署空对空或空对地武器等战术决策。
Development will be incremental, and the first stage of Hypairion won’t necessarily be about having an operational capability, but will look at areas such as energy consumption and system interfacing, Col. Cédric said. First use cases being considered include using AI to optimize flight paths or tactical decisions such as when to deploy air-to-air or air-to-ground weapons.
Cédric上校说，定于2028年飞行的无人飞机将是一个测试平台，可能不会是法国计划为“阵风”战斗机未来F5标准配套的未来僚机无人机，不过这些试验将有助于在这十年晚些时候选择合适的平台。
The unmanned aircraft set to fly in 2028 will be a test platform and may not be the future wing-man drone planned for France’s Rafale jet as part of the fighter’s future F5 standard, though the experimentation will help pick a suitable platform later in the decade, Col. Cédric said.
DGA已将“阵风”F5首个版本的目标数据设定为2033年，但该局负责“阵风”项目的武器装备总工程师Sébastien表示，在此之前，将在当前F4标准框架内开展协同平台的相关工作。
The DGA has set a target data of 2033 for the first version of the Rafale F5, but will work on collaborative platforms within the framework of the current F4 standard before then, said General Engineer of Armaments Sébastien, in charge of the Rafale program at the directorate.
他表示，将人工智能技术集成到“拉法尔”战斗机上的目的是为了帮助机组人员应对那些极其繁重的认知负担，从而保持未来的作战优势。这位武器工程师以泰雷兹公司（Thales）开发的“Talios”激光目标识别系统为例——该系统预计将于2027年交付给法国军队。该系统能够扫描目标区域，并为战斗机机组人员提供潜在目标的清单。
The goal of integrating AI on the Rafale is to help crews manage the “absolutely phenomenal cognitive load” to maintain future operational superiority, he said. The armaments engineer cited the Talios laser-designation pod from Thales, set to be delivered to the armed forces in 2027, as a concrete application of AI, able to scan an area and provide a fighter crew a list of potential targets.
塞德里克上校描绘了一个假设的未来场景：战斗机机组人员会在上午执行任务，任务间隙针对敌人的反制措施进行调整，然后在下午使用更新后的软件再次起飞。他指出，这需要相关系统架构不断进化。
Col. Cédric described a hypothetical future in which a fighter crew would carry out a mission in the morning, in between missions identify an adaptation against an enemy countermeasure, and take off again in the afternoon with updated software. That will require system architectures to evolve, he said.
这位法国空军军官将未来的有人驾驶和无人驾驶飞行平台比作“飞行中的计算机”；在这些平台上，可以更换键盘、显示屏或软件，而不会影响系统的安全性。他强调，“Hypairion”项目所开发的系统架构的核心目标是将飞行安全功能与执行任务的能力区分开来。
The French Air Force officer likened future manned and unmanned platforms to “flying computers” on which the keyboard, screen or software could be changed without compromising security. The goal of the architecture being developed within Hypairion is to separate the flight-safety aspect from the ability to carry out missions, he said.
根据这位上校的说法，出于伦理和操作方面的考虑，法国空军并不认为未来会完全依赖无人驾驶飞机。他表示，武器部署的决定仍然由人类做出，因为人工智能也可能会犯错。“人工智能可以辅助或增强人类的能力，但作战情况的评估、战术判断等关键任务仍然完全属于人类的职责范围。”
The Air Force doesn’t envisage a future with only unmanned aircraft, for both ethical and operational reasons, according to the colonel, who said the decision to deploy weapons remains a human one, and AI can make mistakes. “Humans can be augmented or supplemented by AI, but the assessment of the operational situation, tactical judgment, and so on, these are still entirely the domain of humans.”
在法国空军对“Rafale F5”型号进行升级改造的过程中（这被视为该飞机的“中期大修”），重点关注两个方面：首先是硬件资源的充足性——因为该系统需要能够处理复杂的计算任务；其次是系统的开放性——即军队必须能够根据自己的需求来定制人工智能系统，从而拥有一个“开放型”的人工智能平台。据法国国防总局（DGA）的工程师介绍，“Rafale F4”型号已经具备一定的开放性（通过连接到任务系统的平板电脑实现了初步的交互功能），而“Rafale F5”型号将进一步扩展平板电脑可访问的数据范围，使其能够利用任务系统的计算资源，并提升与机载通信系统及数据链路的交互能力。
As the Air Force prepares the Rafale F5 standard, “a true mid-life overhaul of the aircraft,” focus areas include adequacy of hardware resources, as the system needs to be able to handle complex calculations, Sébastien at the DGA said. Another focus is system openness, meaning “the armed forces must be able to tailor artificial intelligence according to their own needs and so dispose of an open system.”The Rafale’s F4 standard already includes an initial level of openness through a tablet connected to the mission system, and the F5 standard will seek to broaden the scope of data available to the tablet, give it access to the mission system’s computing resources, and improve the ability to interface with onboard communication systems and data links, according to the DGA engineer.
“特别是这些改进将使得在‘Rafale’战斗机上直接控制自主作战平台成为可能——而无需等到‘F5’型号正式投入使用，”塞巴斯蒂安（Sébastien）说道。
“This in particular will make it possible, and without waiting for the deployment of the F5 standard, to control autonomous combat platforms from the Rafale,” Sébastien said.
虽然法国在“Rafale”战斗机的AI系统开发方面依赖达索航空（Dassault Aviation）等主要工业合作伙伴，但军方仍希望确保作战的自主性，即“能够根据具体作战需求来定制人工智能系统”。据塞德里克（Cédric）上校介绍，“Hypairion”项目将制定一份详细的实施计划，涵盖使用理念、作战理论、人员培训以及设备升级等方面的内容；预计到2028年，首批具备协同作战能力的无人机将首次与战斗机一起执行飞行任务。
While France relies on Dassault Aviation and other major industrial partners for the Rafale to develop AI in the fighter’s major systems, the armed forces want to ensure operational autonomy, meaning having “the ability to tailor the AI to the specific operational needs of the theater,” the engineer said. Hypairion will work on a road map covering usage concepts, doctrine, scaling up the work force as well as the actual equipment, resulting in a first full-scale trial of collaborative combat drones flying alongside fighter jets in 2028, according to Col. Cédric.
“对空军而言，最大的挑战在于确定：当所有这些系统都有可能被整合进战斗机中队后，2035年或2040年时这个中队的模样会是怎样，”塞德里克上校说道。“如今，在战斗机中队中遇到计算机科学家其实相当罕见。或许未来，这种情况会变得司空见惯。”
“The challenge for the Air and Space Force is ultimately to determine what a fighter squadron will look like in 2035 or 2040, once all these systems are potentially integrated into the squadron,” Col. Cédric said. “Today, it’s actually quite rare to come across computer scientists in a fighter squadron. Perhaps tomorrow, that will be a daily occurrence.”