As part of an ongoing upgrade program, the US Air Force has selected Raytheon’s PhantomStrike radar for installation on the X-62A VISTA autonomous test aircraft.
PhantomStrike is a compact, air-cooled gallium nitride-based fire-control radar engineered to deliver advanced AESA performance while minimizing size, weight, and power consumption.
With a mass of under 150 pounds (68 kg), the radar is tailored for deployment on unmanned platforms, light-attack aircraft, and helicopters. According to Raytheon, its digital beam steering and beamforming architecture enables multi-mode operations, seamlessly blending air-to-air and air-to-ground targeting at a reduced lifecycle cost.
The system conducted its inaugural flight test in May.
VISTA is a heavily modified F-16D Block 30 incorporating Block 40 avionics and an open-architecture design. The aircraft was developed by Lockheed Martin Skunk Works alongside Calspan Corporation for the USAF Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
Designed as a hybrid experimentation platform, VISTA supports advanced machine-learning research and software development, while complementing the USAF’s VENOM-AFT program focused on autonomous flight testing using F-16 aircraft.
A key milestone was achieved in February 2023 when VISTA completed its first AI-piloted flight, successfully demonstrating within-visual-range combat maneuvers against AI adversary systems.
Planned upgrades in 2025 aim to introduce more demanding operational scenarios, enabling evaluation of AI collaboration, system integration, and real-time autonomous decision-making.
