Subscribe
The B-17 represents some of the challenges that modern autonomous collaborative platforms, or ACP, are solving for our nation today.
Those challenges include cost, the ability to produce at scale, and operating in highly contested airspaces. Now, this B-17 Flying Fortress, along with B-24 Liberator bomber, were used in our strategic bombing campaign against Germany in World War II.
Bomber aircrews operated in highly contested airspace, which led to over 8,000 B-17 and B-24 lost in combat and more than 30,000 heavy bomber crewmen killed in action during that campaign. Because these bombers were produced in such large numbers, the U.S. Army Air Forces were able to sustain such grievous losses.
That said, these heavy losses, at times, forced leaders to pause campaigns or avoid important targets in order to protect the force structure.
In addition to protecting the lives of our Airmen by taking them out of the cockpit, ACPs are also addressing the challenges of cost and the Air Force’s ability to quickly produce aircraft in large numbers. As our airframes have become more and more sophisticated, they take longer to develop, cost more, and are produced in smaller numbers.
This poses a real problem for our warfighters, but ACPs promise a solution to meet these needs at cost and in numbers, like during World War II.
---
Air Force Historian, Jeff Duford, joins the AFRL “Discovery to Delivery” video series to uncover the historic scope and role of AFRL’s critical research, which delivers today’s warfighting capabilities
| Date Taken: | 01.01.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 01.16.2026 09:53 |
| Category: | Video Productions |
| Video ID: | 992992 |
| VIRIN: | 260101-O-NQ323-3578 |
| Filename: | DOD_111480435 |
| Length: | 00:01:52 |
| Location: | US |
| Downloads: | 3 |
| High-Res. Downloads: | 3 |
This work, B-17 & B-24 Mass Production | AFRL Discovery to Delivery, by Keith C Lewis, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
