The People’s Liberation Army has announced a new AI-assisted task dispatch system for China’s aerial refuelling tankers, days after a US military tanker crashed in the Middle East.
According to the official PLA Daily, the Chinese air force has streamlined its aerial refuelling operations with a smart artificial intelligence (AI) system to improve efficiency and safety.
The report on Monday came just days after a US Air Force Boeing KC-135 “Stratotanker” aerial refuelling tanker crashed in western Iraq during America’s Operation Epic Fury against Iran.
According to the PLA Daily report, the “aerial refuelling area management system” – developed by technicians from the PLA Air Force – was first introduced during training at the end of last year.
The system monitors real-time airspace situations and employs built-in algorithms to automatically calculate real-time fuel levels for all participating aircraft within the area.
Based on the fuel levels, airspace capacity and flight duration of each aircraft, the system generates the most optimised pairing plans between tankers and fighters, issuing recommendations to pilots.
“The ‘smart task assignment’ programme recommends scientifically sound and highly efficient solutions, enabling the maximisation of aerial refuelling effectiveness,” the PLA Daily quoted Yu He, an Air Force officer involved in the programme, as saying.
In the past, the pairing process was like a “blind choice”, Yu said. Tankers would simply loiter passively in the air, while fighters tended to select the nearest available tanker. This often created operational bottlenecks, with some tankers becoming overloaded as others nearby remained idle.
“The old random refuelling-receiving model had become a critical weakness limiting combat effectiveness and was ill-suited to the demands of future battlefields,” the report said. “Thanks to the new system, aerial refuelling efficiency has been further improved.”
The KC-135 crash last Thursday killed all six crew members. The Pentagon denied the involvement of any hostile or friendly fire, although a pro-Iranian militant group claimed responsibility for downing the aircraft.
Initial reports suggested the crash resulted from a mid-air collision with another KC-135 that sustained damage but landed safely.
The US KC-135 fleet, built in the 1950s and 1960s, is too old and poorly maintained, Du Wenlong, a military analyst, said on Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
“Frequent long-distance deployments to hotspot regions place additional stress and fatigue on the aged airframes as well as the crew, which could lead to certain issues,” he said.
Du, a retired PLA senior colonel, cited a 1966 incident in which a KC-135 collided with a B-52 that was receiving refuelling in-flight, resulting in the bomber dropping its hydrogen bombs and triggering radioactive contamination. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
