The latest technology integrating artificial intelligence (AI) with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in “contested environments” has passed the test following trials conducted by the U.S., U.K. and Australia’s military alliance, AUKUS, officials said Friday.

According to all three defense agencies in the alliance, the cutting-edge sensing technology was put to the test to determine whether UAVs could “complete their missions and preserve network connectivity” across multi-domain battlespaces, including land, maritime, air and cyberspace. 

Under Pillar Two of the AUKUS agreement, all three nations are working to “harmonize” AI technologies for defense and security applications, largely in the face of growing Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific. 

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According to a release from the Department of Defense (DOD) Friday, the AI-UAV integrated technology is intended to “minimize the time between sensing enemy targets, deciding how to respond and responding to the threat.”

“Once matured and integrated into national platforms, these new sensing systems will yield more reliable data that commanders can use to make optimal decisions and service members to act more quickly against kinetic threats — all while enabling seamless joint and combined military operations involving multiple services and nations,” a statement by the DOD said. 

One example of a system tested in the Resilient and Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Technology (RAAIT) trials was the use of a map-based application known as a Tactical Assault Kit (TAK).

The software helped a British UAV detect the location of adversarial forces by using “on-the-fly adjustments” that were based on data it collected in coordination with a separate UAV that provided detailed imagery. 

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The coordinated information was then sent to an “AI officer” in the Tactical Operations Center (TOC), who provided human oversight before an Australian XT-8 UAV could be triggered for strike use. 

“It used to be that each nation used its own datasets to develop separate models and deploy those models on their own platforms. Under RAAIT, we’ve matured the AI pipeline, focusing on interchangeability and interoperability, which allows for any combinations of datasets, models, algorithms and platforms to be used across all three nations,” Kimberly Sablon, principal director of Trusted AI and Autonomy (AIA) in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering said. 

The AUKUS alliance handed control of a drone swarm to an AI program to test its observational capabilities. (UK Ministry of Defense handout)

The “lessons learned” from the joint trials will be used to create an “AIA ecosystem” that can be employed for operational use by all three nations. 

“Our goal is to get to the point where we have a pipeline that is interchangeable and interoperable but robust,” Sablon said. “Being able to collect data, train our AI systems, conduct testing and evaluation and even adapt to unanticipated threats in less than 10 hours at the edge is a huge milestone for our partnership.”

As Sziget Festival celebrates three decades of music and culture on Óbuda Island off the coast of Budapest, festival organisers have raised the event’s security alert to ensure the safety of roughly 95,000 daily patrons.

Organisers put the seven-day festival on precautionary high alert following Austrian police thwarting twin terrorist plots targeting Taylor Swift concerts in the country’s capital on Wednesday.

The attacks were allegedly plotted by individuals claiming to be associated with the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organisation.

Sziget Festival is monitored by thousands of security staff — including Hungarian police officers in plainclothes, as well as counter-terrorism experts — as well as up to 50 security cameras.

But the 108-hectare island is particularly vulnerable to an attack due to it’s accessibility by boat from Hungary’s capital, security personnel say.

Watch the video in the player above for more information.

SAO PAULO (AP) — Families of victims of an airliner crash in Brazil are gathering Sunday at a morgue and hotels in Sao Paulo as forensics experts work to identify the remains of the 62 people killed in the accident.

Local authorities said the bodies of the pilot, Danilo Santos Romano, and his co-pilot, Humberto de Campos Alencar e Silva, were the first to be identified by forensics experts.

Sao Paulo state government said in a statement Saturday evening that the remains of all the victims had been recovered. There were 34 male and 28 female bodies in the wreckage, it said.

The ATR 72 twin-engine turboprop operated by Brazilian airline Voepass was headed for Guarulhos international airport in Sao Paulo with 58 passengers and four crew members when it went down Friday in Vinhedo, 78 kilometers (49 miles) north of the metropolis. Voepass said three passengers who held Brazilian identification also carried Venezuelan documents and one had Portuguese.

At least eight physicians were aboard, Paraná state Gov. Ratinho Júnior said. Four professors at Unioeste university in western Paraná were also confirmed dead.

Three-year-old Liz Ibba dos Santos, who was travelling with her father, was the only child known to be on passenger list. The remains of Luna, a dog that was traveling with a Venezuelan family, was found in the wreckage.

Sao Paulo’s morgue began receiving the bodies Friday evening, and it asked victims’ relatives to bring in medical, X-ray and dental records to help identify the bodies. Blood tests were also done to help identification efforts.

The few family members speaking about the tragedy did so on social media.

Tânia Azevedo, who lost her son Tiago in the crash, was put up in one of the hotels in Sao Paulo, but said in a posting that she was waiting to go to the morgue.

“I believe Tiago is somewhere trying to help the other people wounded who also need light and love,” she said. “I couldn’t go there (to the morgue). I am here waiting. It is dark here, I need some light and love myself.”

Images recorded by witnesses showed the aircraft in a flat spin and plunging vertically before smashing to the ground inside a gated community, and leaving an obliterated fuselage consumed by fire. Residents said there were no injuries on the ground.

It was the world’s deadliest airline crash since January 2023, when 72 people died on a Yeti Airlines plane in Nepal that stalled and crashed while making its landing approach. That plane also was an ATR 72, and the final report blamed pilot error.

Metsul, one of Brazil’s most respected meteorological companies, said Friday there were reports of severe icing in Sao Paulo state around the time of the crash. Local media cited experts pointing to icing as a potential cause for the accident.

A video shared on social media channels Saturday shows a Voepass pilot telling passengers of a flight from Guarulhos to the city of Cascavel, the same origin of the crashed plane, that the ATR 72 has flown safely around the world for decades. He also asked passengers to be respectful to the memory of his colleagues and the company and asked for prayers.

“This tragedy doesn’t hit only those who perished in this accident. It hits all of us,” the unidentified pilot said. “We are giving all our hearts, all our best to be here and fulfill our mission to take you safely and comfortably to your destination.”

Police restricted access to the main entrance of the Sao Paulo morgue where bodies from the crash were being identified. Some family members of the victims arrived on foot, others came in minivans. None spoke to journalists, and authorities requested that they not be filmed as they came.

A flight carrying more family members from Paraná state landed Saturday afternoon at Guarulhos airport, and they also chose not to speak to journalists. A minivan sponsored by the airline was provided to transport them to the morgue.

Many family members were gathering at a hotel in downtown Sao Paulo, and declining to speak to media there, too.

An American Eagle ATR 72-200 crashed on Oct. 31, 1994, and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board determined the probable cause was ice buildup while the plane was circling in a holding pattern. The plane rolled at about 8,000 feet and dove into the ground, killing all 68 people on board. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration issued operating procedures for ATRs and similar planes telling pilots not to use the autopilot in icing conditions.

Brazilian aviation expert Lito Sousa cautioned that meteorological conditions alone might not be enough to explain why the Voepass plane fell in the manner it did Friday.

“Analyzing an air crash just with images can lead to wrong conclusions about the causes,” Sousa told The Associated Press by phone. “But we can see a plane with loss of support, no horizontal speed. In this flat spin condition, there’s no way to reclaim control of the plane.”

Brazil’s air force said Saturday that both of the plane’s flight recorders had been sent to its analysis laboratory in the capital, Brasilia. The results of its investigations are expected to be published within 30 days, it said.

Marcelo Moura, director of operations for Voepass, told reporters Friday night that while there were forecasts for ice, they were within acceptable levels for the aircraft.

In an earlier statement, the Brazilian air force’s center for the investigation and prevention of air accidents said the plane’s pilots did not call for help or say they were operating under adverse weather conditions.

The ATR 72, which is built by a joint venture of Airbus in France and Italy’s Leonardo SpA. is generally used on shorter flights. Crashes involving various models of the ATR 72 have resulted in 470 deaths going back to the 1990s, according to a database of the Aviation Safety Network.

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Pollastri reported from Vinhedo.