The Air Force has equipped a legacy U-2 surveillance aircraft with machine learning thanks to Kubernetes, an open-source container-orchestration system that automates the application deployment, scaling and management.
Tested on a local training sortie on Sept. 22, Kubernetes allows the U-2 to combine the power of four on-board legacy computers to run advanced machine learning algorithms without negatively impacting the aircraft’s flight or mission systems. “The successful combination of the U-2’s legacy computer system with the modern Kubernetes software was a critical milestone for the development of software containerization on existing Air Force weapon systems,” Air Force Chief Software Officer Nicolas Chaillan said.