F/A-18 jets get software to pull themselves out of a dive.

Since 1983, Navy pilots have flown F/A-18 fighter jets under a "trust the human" rule. If an aviator passed out from high G-forces or lost the horizon in a dark sky, the airplane would dutifully fly itself directly into the dirt at seven hundred miles an hour. This procurement notice ends that era. The Navy is buying a hardware and software redesign to link the flight control computer directly to the digital map. If the pilot stops flying, the machine takes the stick and pulls away from the ground.

The US Air Force put an automatic ground collision avoidance system into its F-16 fleet in 2014, saving dozens of lives. The Navy spent the next twelve years lagging behind, dragging its feet through hardware integration issues and bureaucratic turf battles over modifying carrier-landing flight software. Aviators flying the Super Hornet and Growler finally get the same digital safety net their Air Force peers have used for over a decade. The Pentagon preserves multi-million dollar airframes. Navy families stop losing people to spatial disorientation.