Last month, Japan’s Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency (ATLA) announced the results of the “4th Air Combat AI Challenge.” In this open competition, participating teams comprised of companies, researchers, and engineers were tasked with simultaneously controlling multiple aircraft in an air combat simulator, where they competed as opposing teams in real-time aerial battles.[1]Hosted by ATLA’s Air Systems Research Center and organized by SIGNATE Inc.,[2] a Japanese digital transformation support services company, the fourth edition of the Air Combat AI competition ran from July 2025 …