Ukraine Accelerates Development of AI-Enabled War Drones

Ukraine rushes to create AI-enabled war drones

KYIV, July 18 (Reuters) - In Ukraine, a handful of startups are developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems to help fly a vast fleet of drones, taking warfare into uncharted territory as combatants race to gain a technological edge in battle. Ukraine hopes a rollout of AI-enabled drones across the front line will help it overcome increasing signal jamming by the Russians as well as enable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to work in larger groups. AI drone development in Ukraine is broadly split between visual systems helping identify targets and fly drones into them, terrain mapping for navigation, and more complex programmes enabling UAVs to operate in interconnected "swarms". One company working on this is Swarmer, which is developing software that links drones in a network. Decisions can be implemented instantly across the group, with a human only stepping in to green-light automated strikes. "When you try to scale up (with human pilots), it just doesn't work," Swarmer CEO Serhiy Kupriienko told Reuters in the company's Kyiv offices. "For a swarm of 10 or 20 drones or robots, it's virtually impossible for humans to manage them." Swarmer is one of more than 200 tech firms that have sprung up since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, with civilians from IT backgrounds developing drones and other devices to help Ukraine counter a much larger enemy. Kupriienko said that while human pilots struggled to run operations involving more than five drones, AI would be able to process hundreds. The system, called Styx, directs a web of reconnaissance and strike drones, both large and small, in the air and on the ground. Every drone would be able to plan its own moves and predict the behaviour of the others in the swarm, he said. As well as scaling up operations, Kupriienko said automation would help protect drone pilots who operate close to the front lines and are a priority target for enemy fire. Swarmer's technology is still under development and has only been trialled on the battlefield experimentally, he added. Samuel Bendett, Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said AI drone control systems would likely need a human in the loop to prevent the system making errors in target selection. There are broad concerns about the ethics of weapons that exclude human judgment. A 2020 European Parliament research paper warned that such systems could commit violations of international humanitarian law and lower the threshold of going to war. AI is already being used in some of Ukraine's long-range drone strikes which target military facilities and oil refineries hundreds of kilometres inside Russia. One Ukrainian official, speaking anonymously, told Reuters that the attacks sometimes involve a swarm of about 20 drones. The core drones fly to the target, but it is the job of others to take out or distract air defences along the way. To do this, they use a form of AI with human oversight to help spot targets or threats and plan possible routes, the source added. Item 1 of 5 A stork walks across a field as employees of Swarmer company prepare the AI-enabled drone for flight, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv region, Ukraine June 27, 2024. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich/File Photo [1/5]A stork walks across a field as employees of Swarmer company prepare the AI-enabled drone for flight, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv region, Ukraine June 27, 2024. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab SIGNAL JAMMING The need for AI-enabled drones is becoming more pressing as both sides roll out Electronic Warfare (EW) systems that disrupt signals between pilots and drones. Small, cheap, FPV (first person view) drones in particular, which became the main way for both sides to hit enemy vehicles in 2023, are seeing their hit rates fall as jamming increases. "We are already working with the concept that in the near future, there will be no connection on the front line" between pilot and UAV, said Max Makarchuk, the AI lead for Brave1, a defence tech accelerator set up by the Ukrainian government. According to Makarchuk, the percentage of FPVs that hit their target is constantly falling. Most FPV units now see a strike rate of 30-50%, while for new pilots that can be as low as 10%. He predicted that AI-operated FPV drones could post hit rates of around 80%. To counter the EW threat, makers including Swarmer have started developing functions which allow a drone to lock onto a target through its camera. EW systems form an invisible signal-jamming dome over the equipment and soldiers which they protect. If a pilot's contact with the drone is cut, they can no longer control it and the craft either plummets to the ground or continues flying straight on. Automating the final part of a drone's flight to its target means that it no longer needs the pilot - thus nullifying the effect of the EW's jamming. AI-enabled drones have been in development for years, but had hitherto been seen as expensive and experimental. Bendett said Russia had been developing AI-enabled aerial and ground drones before the 2022 invasion, and had claimed some successes. In Ukraine, the key task for manufacturers is to produce an AI targeting system for drones which is cheap. That would allow it to be deployed en masse along the entire 1,000 km (621 mile) front line, where thousands of FPV drones are used up each week. Costs can be brought down by running AI programmes on a Raspberry Pi, a small, cheap computer which has found global popularity outside the educational purposes it was designed for. Makarchuk said he estimated the cost of putting in a simple targeting system, which would lock onto a shape visible to the drone's camera, at only about $150 per drone. Editing by Mike Collett-White and Gareth Jones Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Ukraine rushes to create AI-enabled war drones

KYIV (Reuters) - In Ukraine, a handful of startups are developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems to help fly a vast fleet of drones, taking warfare into uncharted territory as combatants race to gain a technological edge in battle. Ukraine hopes a rollout of AI-enabled drones across the front line will help it overcome increasing signal jamming by the Russians as well as enable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to work in larger groups. AI drone development in Ukraine is broadly split between visual systems helping identify targets and fly drones into them, terrain mapping for navigation, and more complex programmes enabling UAVs to operate in interconnected "swarms". One company working on this is Swarmer, which is developing software that links drones in a network. Decisions can be implemented instantly across the group, with a human only stepping in to green-light automated strikes. "When you try to scale up (with human pilots), it just doesn't work," Swarmer CEO Serhiy Kupriienko told Reuters in the company's Kyiv offices. "For a swarm of 10 or 20 drones or robots, it's virtually impossible for humans to manage them." Swarmer is one of more than 200 tech firms that have sprung up since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, with civilians from IT backgrounds developing drones and other devices to help Ukraine counter a much larger enemy. Kupriienko said that while human pilots struggled to run operations involving more than five drones, AI would be able to process hundreds. The system, called Styx, directs a web of reconnaissance and strike drones, both large and small, in the air and on the ground. Every drone would be able to plan its own moves and predict the behaviour of the others in the swarm, he said. As well as scaling up operations, Kupriienko said automation would help protect drone pilots who operate close to the front lines and are a priority target for enemy fire. Swarmer's technology is still under development and has only been trialled on the battlefield experimentally, he added. Samuel Bendett, Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said AI drone control systems would likely need a human in the loop to prevent the system making errors in target selection. There are broad concerns about the ethics of weapons that exclude human judgment. A 2020 European Parliament research paper warned that such systems could commit violations of international humanitarian law and lower the threshold of going to war. AI is already being used in some of Ukraine's long-range drone strikes which target military facilities and oil refineries hundreds of kilometres inside Russia. One Ukrainian official, speaking anonymously, told Reuters that the attacks sometimes involve a swarm of about 20 drones. The core drones fly to the target, but it is the job of others to take out or distract air defences along the way. To do this, they use a form of AI with human oversight to help spot targets or threats and plan possible routes, the source added. SIGNAL JAMMING The need for AI-enabled drones is becoming more pressing as both sides roll out Electronic Warfare (EW) systems that disrupt signals between pilots and drones. Small, cheap, FPV (first person view) drones in particular, which became the main way for both sides to hit enemy vehicles in 2023, are seeing their hit rates fall as jamming increases. "We are already working with the concept that in the near future, there will be no connection on the front line" between pilot and UAV, said Max Makarchuk, the AI lead for Brave1, a defence tech accelerator set up by the Ukrainian government. According to Makarchuk, the percentage of FPVs that hit their target is constantly falling. Most FPV units now see a strike rate of 30-50%, while for new pilots that can be as low as 10%. He predicted that AI-operated FPV drones could post hit rates of around 80%. To counter the EW threat, makers including Swarmer have started developing functions which allow a drone to lock onto a target through its camera. EW systems form an invisible signal-jamming dome over the equipment and soldiers which they protect. If a pilot's contact with the drone is cut, they can no longer control it and the craft either plummets to the ground or continues flying straight on. Automating the final part of a drone's flight to its target means that it no longer needs the pilot - thus nullifying the effect of the EW's jamming. AI-enabled drones have been in development for years, but had hitherto been seen as expensive and experimental. Bendett said Russia had been developing AI-enabled aerial and ground drones before the 2022 invasion, and had claimed some successes. In Ukraine, the key task for manufacturers is to produce an AI targeting system for drones which is cheap. That would allow it to be deployed en masse along the entire 1,000 km (621 mile) front line, where thousands of FPV drones are used up each week. Costs can be brought down by running AI programmes on a Raspberry Pi, a small, cheap computer which has found global popularity outside the educational purposes it was designed for. Makarchuk said he estimated the cost of putting in a simple targeting system, which would lock onto a shape visible to the drone's camera, at only about $150 per drone.

Ukraine Rushes to Create AI-Enabled War Drones

KYIV (Reuters) - In Ukraine, a handful of startups are developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems to help fly a vast fleet of drones, taking warfare into uncharted territory as combatants race to gain a technological edge in battle. Ukraine hopes a rollout of AI-enabled drones across the front line will help it overcome increasing signal jamming by the Russians as well as enable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to work in larger groups. AI drone development in Ukraine is broadly split between visual systems helping identify targets and fly drones into them, terrain mapping for navigation, and more complex programmes enabling UAVs to operate in interconnected "swarms". One company working on this is Swarmer, which is developing software that links drones in a network. Decisions can be implemented instantly across the group, with a human only stepping in to green-light automated strikes. "When you try to scale up (with human pilots), it just doesn't work," Swarmer CEO Serhiy Kupriienko told Reuters in the company's Kyiv offices. "For a swarm of 10 or 20 drones or robots, it's virtually impossible for humans to manage them." Swarmer is one of more than 200 tech firms that have sprung up since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, with civilians from IT backgrounds developing drones and other devices to help Ukraine counter a much larger enemy. Kupriienko said that while human pilots struggled to run operations involving more than five drones, AI would be able to process hundreds. The system, called Styx, directs a web of reconnaissance and strike drones, both large and small, in the air and on the ground. Every drone would be able to plan its own moves and predict the behaviour of the others in the swarm, he said. As well as scaling up operations, Kupriienko said automation would help protect drone pilots who operate close to the front lines and are a priority target for enemy fire. Swarmer's technology is still under development and has only been trialled on the battlefield experimentally, he added. Samuel Bendett, Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said AI drone control systems would likely need a human in the loop to prevent the system making errors in target selection. There are broad concerns about the ethics of weapons that exclude human judgment. A 2020 European Parliament research paper warned that such systems could commit violations of international humanitarian law and lower the threshold of going to war. AI is already being used in some of Ukraine's long-range drone strikes which target military facilities and oil refineries hundreds of kilometres inside Russia. One Ukrainian official, speaking anonymously, told Reuters that the attacks sometimes involve a swarm of about 20 drones. The core drones fly to the target, but it is the job of others to take out or distract air defences along the way. To do this, they use a form of AI with human oversight to help spot targets or threats and plan possible routes, the source added. SIGNAL JAMMING The need for AI-enabled drones is becoming more pressing as both sides roll out Electronic Warfare (EW) systems that disrupt signals between pilots and drones. Small, cheap, FPV (first person view) drones in particular, which became the main way for both sides to hit enemy vehicles in 2023, are seeing their hit rates fall as jamming increases. "We are already working with the concept that in the near future, there will be no connection on the front line" between pilot and UAV, said Max Makarchuk, the AI lead for Brave1, a defence tech accelerator set up by the Ukrainian government. According to Makarchuk, the percentage of FPVs that hit their target is constantly falling. Most FPV units now see a strike rate of 30-50%, while for new pilots that can be as low as 10%. He predicted that AI-operated FPV drones could post hit rates of around 80%. To counter the EW threat, makers including Swarmer have started developing functions which allow a drone to lock onto a target through its camera. EW systems form an invisible signal-jamming dome over the equipment and soldiers which they protect. If a pilot's contact with the drone is cut, they can no longer control it and the craft either plummets to the ground or continues flying straight on. Automating the final part of a drone's flight to its target means that it no longer needs the pilot - thus nullifying the effect of the EW's jamming. AI-enabled drones have been in development for years, but had hitherto been seen as expensive and experimental. Bendett said Russia had been developing AI-enabled aerial and ground drones before the 2022 invasion, and had claimed some successes. In Ukraine, the key task for manufacturers is to produce an AI targeting system for drones which is cheap. That would allow it to be deployed en masse along the entire 1,000 km (621 mile) front line, where thousands of FPV drones are used up each week. Costs can be brought down by running AI programmes on a Raspberry Pi, a small, cheap computer which has found global popularity outside the educational purposes it was designed for. Makarchuk said he estimated the cost of putting in a simple targeting system, which would lock onto a shape visible to the drone's camera, at only about $150 per drone.

Ukraine rushes to create AI-enabled war drones

AI drone development in Ukraine is broadly split between visual systems helping identify targets and fly drones into them, terrain mapping for navigation, and more complex programmes enabling UAVs to operate in interconnected swarms. Swarmer is one of more than 200 tech firms that have sprung up since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, with civilians from IT backgrounds developing drones and other devices to help Ukraine counter a much larger enemy.In Ukraine, a handful of startups are developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems to help fly a vast fleet of drones, taking warfare into uncharted territory as combatants race to gain a technological edge in battle. Ukraine hopes a rollout of AI-enabled drones across the front line will help it overcome increasing signal jamming by the Russians as well as enable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to work in larger groups. AI drone development in Ukraine is broadly split between visual systems helping identify targets and fly drones into them, terrain mapping for navigation, and more complex programmes enabling UAVs to operate in interconnected "swarms". One company working on this is Swarmer, which is developing software that links drones in a network. Decisions can be implemented instantly across the group, with a human only stepping in to green-light automated strikes. "When you try to scale up (with human pilots), it just doesn't work," Swarmer CEO Serhiy Kupriienko told Reuters in the company's Kyiv offices. "For a swarm of 10 or 20 drones or robots, it's virtually impossible for humans to manage them." Swarmer is one of more than 200 tech firms that have sprung up since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, with civilians from IT backgrounds developing drones and other devices to help Ukraine counter a much larger enemy. Kupriienko said that while human pilots struggled to run operations involving more than five drones, AI would be able to process hundreds. The system, called Styx, directs a web of reconnaissance and strike drones, both large and small, in the air and on the ground. Every drone would be able to plan its own moves and predict the behaviour of the others in the swarm, he said. As well as scaling up operations, Kupriienko said automation would help protect drone pilots who operate close to the front lines and are a priority target for enemy fire. Swarmer's technology is still under development and has only been trialled on the battlefield experimentally, he added. Samuel Bendett, Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said AI drone control systems would likely need a human in the loop to prevent the system making errors in target selection. There are broad concerns about the ethics of weapons that exclude human judgment. A 2020 European Parliament research paper warned that such systems could commit violations of international humanitarian law and lower the threshold of going to war. AI is already being used in some of Ukraine's long-range drone strikes which target military facilities and oil refineries hundreds of kilometres inside Russia. One Ukrainian official, speaking anonymously, told Reuters that the attacks sometimes involve a swarm of about 20 drones. The core drones fly to the target, but it is the job of others to take out or distract air defences along the way. To do this, they use a form of AI with human oversight to help spot targets or threats and plan possible routes, the source added. Signal Jamming The need for AI-enabled drones is becoming more pressing as both sides roll out Electronic Warfare (EW) systems that disrupt signals between pilots and drones. Small, cheap, FPV (first person view) drones in particular, which became the main way for both sides to hit enemy vehicles in 2023, are seeing their hit rates fall as jamming increases. "We are already working with the concept that in the near future, there will be no connection on the front line" between pilot and UAV, said Max Makarchuk, the AI lead for Brave1, a defence tech accelerator set up by the Ukrainian government. According to Makarchuk, the percentage of FPVs that hit their target is constantly falling. Most FPV units now see a strike rate of 30-50%, while for new pilots that can be as low as 10%. He predicted that AI-operated FPV drones could post hit rates of around 80%. To counter the EW threat, makers including Swarmer have started developing functions which allow a drone to lock onto a target through its camera. EW systems form an invisible signal-jamming dome over the equipment and soldiers which they protect. If a pilot's contact with the drone is cut, they can no longer control it and the craft either plummets to the ground or continues flying straight on. Automating the final part of a drone's flight to its target means that it no longer needs the pilot - thus nullifying the effect of the EW's jamming. AI-enabled drones have been in development for years, but had hitherto been seen as expensive and experimental. Bendett said Russia had been developing AI-enabled aerial and ground drones before the 2022 invasion, and had claimed some successes. In Ukraine, the key task for manufacturers is to produce an AI targeting system for drones which is cheap. That would allow it to be deployed en masse along the entire 1,000 km (621 mile) front line, where thousands of FPV drones are used up each week. Costs can be brought down by running AI programmes on a Raspberry Pi, a small, cheap computer which has found global popularity outside the educational purposes it was designed for. Makarchuk said he estimated the cost of putting in a simple targeting system, which would lock onto a shape visible to the drone's camera, at only about $150 per drone.

Ukraine rushes to create AI-enabled war drones

Reuters is an international news organisation owned by Thomson Reuters In Ukraine, a handful of startups are developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems to help fly a vast fleet of drones, taking warfare into uncharted territory as combatants race to gain a technological edge in battle. Ukraine hopes a rollout of AI-enabled drones across the front line will help it overcome increasing signal jamming by the Russians as well as enable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to work in larger groups. AI drone development in Ukraine is broadly split between visual systems helping identify targets and fly drones into them, terrain mapping for navigation, and more complex programmes enabling UAVs to operate in interconnected "swarms". One company working on this is Swarmer, which is developing software that links drones in a network. Decisions can be implemented instantly across the group, with a human only stepping in to green-light automated strikes. "When you try to scale up (with human pilots), it just doesn't work," Swarmer CEO Serhiy Kupriienko told Reuters in the company's Kyiv offices. "For a swarm of 10 or 20 drones or robots, it's virtually impossible for humans to manage them." Swarmer is one of more than 200 tech firms that have sprung up since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, with civilians from IT backgrounds developing drones and other devices to help Ukraine counter a much larger enemy. Kupriienko said that while human pilots struggled to run operations involving more than five drones, AI would be able to process hundreds. The system, called Styx, directs a web of reconnaissance and strike drones, both large and small, in the air and on the ground. Every drone would be able to plan its own moves and predict the behaviour of the others in the swarm, he said. As well as scaling up operations, Kupriienko said automation would help protect drone pilots who operate close to the front lines and are a priority target for enemy fire. Swarmer's technology is still under development and has only been trialled on the battlefield experimentally, he added. Samuel Bendett, Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said AI drone control systems would likely need a human in the loop to prevent the system making errors in target selection. There are broad concerns about the ethics of weapons that exclude human judgment. A 2020 European Parliament research paper warned that such systems could commit violations of international humanitarian law and lower the threshold of going to war. AI is already being used in some of Ukraine's long-range drone strikes which target military facilities and oil refineries hundreds of kilometres inside Russia. One Ukrainian official, speaking anonymously, told Reuters that the attacks sometimes involve a swarm of about 20 drones. The core drones fly to the target, but it is the job of others to take out or distract air defences along the way. To do this, they use a form of AI with human oversight to help spot targets or threats and plan possible routes, the source added. SIGNAL JAMMING The need for AI-enabled drones is becoming more pressing as both sides roll out Electronic Warfare (EW) systems that disrupt signals between pilots and drones. Small, cheap, FPV (first person view) drones in particular, which became the main way for both sides to hit enemy vehicles in 2023, are seeing their hit rates fall as jamming increases. "We are already working with the concept that in the near future, there will be no connection on the front line" between pilot and UAV, said Max Makarchuk, the AI lead for Brave1, a defence tech accelerator set up by the Ukrainian government. According to Makarchuk, the percentage of FPVs that hit their target is constantly falling. Most FPV units now see a strike rate of 30-50%, while for new pilots that can be as low as 10%. He predicted that AI-operated FPV drones could post hit rates of around 80%. To counter the EW threat, makers including Swarmer have started developing functions which allow a drone to lock onto a target through its camera. EW systems form an invisible signal-jamming dome over the equipment and soldiers which they protect. If a pilot's contact with the drone is cut, they can no longer control it and the craft either plummets to the ground or continues flying straight on. Automating the final part of a drone's flight to its target means that it no longer needs the pilot - thus nullifying the effect of the EW's jamming. AI-enabled drones have been in development for years, but had hitherto been seen as expensive and experimental. Bendett said Russia had been developing AI-enabled aerial and ground drones before the 2022 invasion, and had claimed some successes. In Ukraine, the key task for manufacturers is to produce an AI targeting system for drones which is cheap. That would allow it to be deployed en masse along the entire 1,000 km (621 mile) front line, where thousands of FPV drones are used up each week. Costs can be brought down by running AI programmes on a Raspberry Pi, a small, cheap computer which has found global popularity outside the educational purposes it was designed for. Makarchuk said he estimated the cost of putting in a simple targeting system, which would lock onto a shape visible to the drone's camera, at only about $150 per drone.

Ukraine rushes to create AI-enabled war drones

AI drone development in Ukraine is broadly split between visual systems helping identify targets and fly drones into them, terrain mapping for navigation, and more complex programmes enabling UAVs to operate in interconnected "swarms". One company working on this is Swarmer, which is developing software that links drones in a network. Decisions can be implemented instantly across the group, with a human only stepping in to green-light automated strikes. "When you try to scale up (with human pilots), it just doesn't work," Swarmer CEO Serhiy Kupriienko told Reuters in the company's Kyiv offices. "For a swarm of 10 or 20 drones or robots, it's virtually impossible for humans to manage them." Swarmer is one of more than 200 tech firms that have sprung up since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, with civilians from IT backgrounds developing drones and other devices to help Ukraine counter a much larger enemy. Kupriienko said that while human pilots struggled to run operations involving more than five drones, AI would be able to process hundreds. The system, called Styx, directs a web of reconnaissance and strike drones, both large and small, in the air and on the ground. Every drone would be able to plan its own moves and predict the behaviour of the others in the swarm, he said. As well as scaling up operations, Kupriienko said automation would help protect drone pilots who operate close to the front lines and are a priority target for enemy fire. Swarmer's technology is still under development and has only been trialled on the battlefield experimentally, he added. Samuel Bendett, Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said AI drone control systems would likely need a human in the loop to prevent the system making errors in target selection. There are broad concerns about the ethics of weapons that exclude human judgment. A 2020 European Parliament research paper warned that such systems could commit violations of international humanitarian law and lower the threshold of going to war. AI is already being used in some of Ukraine's long-range drone strikes which target military facilities and oil refineries hundreds of kilometres inside Russia. One Ukrainian official, speaking anonymously, told Reuters that the attacks sometimes involve a swarm of about 20 drones. The core drones fly to the target, but it is the job of others to take out or distract air defences along the way. To do this, they use a form of AI with human oversight to help spot targets or threats and plan possible routes, the source added. The need for AI-enabled drones is becoming more pressing as both sides roll out Electronic Warfare (EW) systems that disrupt signals between pilots and drones. Small, cheap, FPV (first person view) drones in particular, which became the main way for both sides to hit enemy vehicles in 2023, are seeing their hit rates fall as jamming increases. "We are already working with the concept that in the near future, there will be no connection on the front line" between pilot and UAV, said Max Makarchuk, the AI lead for Brave1, a defence tech accelerator set up by the Ukrainian government. According to Makarchuk, the percentage of FPVs that hit their target is constantly falling. Most FPV units now see a strike rate of 30-50%, while for new pilots that can be as low as 10%. He predicted that AI-operated FPV drones could post hit rates of around 80%. To counter the EW threat, makers including Swarmer have started developing functions which allow a drone to lock onto a target through its camera. EW systems form an invisible signal-jamming dome over the equipment and soldiers which they protect. If a pilot's contact with the drone is cut, they can no longer control it and the craft either plummets to the ground or continues flying straight on. Automating the final part of a drone's flight to its target means that it no longer needs the pilot - thus nullifying the effect of the EW's jamming. AI-enabled drones have been in development for years, but had hitherto been seen as expensive and experimental. Bendett said Russia had been developing AI-enabled aerial and ground drones before the 2022 invasion, and had claimed some successes. In Ukraine, the key task for manufacturers is to produce an AI targeting system for drones which is cheap. That would allow it to be deployed en masse along the entire 1,000 km (621 mile) front line, where thousands of FPV drones are used up each week. Costs can be brought down by running AI programmes on a Raspberry Pi, a small, cheap computer which has found global popularity outside the educational purposes it was designed for. Makarchuk said he estimated the cost of putting in a simple targeting system, which would lock onto a shape visible to the drone's camera, at only about $150 per drone.

Ukraine rushes to create AI-enabled war drones

In Ukraine, a handful of startups are developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems to help fly a vast fleet of drones, taking warfare into uncharted territory as combatants race to gain a technological edge in battle. Ukraine hopes a rollout of AI-enabled drones across the front line will help it overcome increasing signal jamming by the Russians as well as enable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to work in larger groups. AI drone development in Ukraine is broadly split between visual systems helping identify targets and fly drones into them, terrain mapping for navigation, and more complex programmes enabling UAVs to operate in interconnected "swarms". One company working on this is Swarmer, which is developing software that links drones in a network. Decisions can be implemented instantly across the group, with a human only stepping in to green-light automated strikes. (For top technology news of the day, subscribe to our tech newsletter Today's Cache) "When you try to scale up (with human pilots), it just doesn't work," Swarmer CEO Serhiy Kupriienko told Reuters in the company's Kyiv offices. "For a swarm of 10 or 20 drones or robots, it's virtually impossible for humans to manage them." Swarmer is one of more than 200 tech firms that have sprung up since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, with civilians from IT backgrounds developing drones and other devices to help Ukraine counter a much larger enemy. Kupriienko said that while human pilots struggled to run operations involving more than five drones, AI would be able to process hundreds. The system, called Styx, directs a web of reconnaissance and strike drones, both large and small, in the air and on the ground. Every drone would be able to plan its own moves and predict the behaviour of the others in the swarm, he said. As well as scaling up operations, Kupriienko said automation would help protect drone pilots who operate close to the front lines and are a priority target for enemy fire. Swarmer's technology is still under development and has only been trialled on the battlefield experimentally, he added. Samuel Bendett, Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said AI drone control systems would likely need a human in the loop to prevent the system making errors in target selection. There are broad concerns about the ethics of weapons that exclude human judgment. A 2020 European Parliament research paper warned that such systems could commit violations of international humanitarian law and lower the threshold of going to war. AI is already being used in some of Ukraine's long-range drone strikes which target military facilities and oil refineries hundreds of kilometres inside Russia. One Ukrainian official, speaking anonymously, told Reuters that the attacks sometimes involve a swarm of about 20 drones. The core drones fly to the target, but it is the job of others to take out or distract air defences along the way. To do this, they use a form of AI with human oversight to help spot targets or threats and plan possible routes, the source added. Signal jamming The need for AI-enabled drones is becoming more pressing as both sides roll out Electronic Warfare (EW) systems that disrupt signals between pilots and drones. Small, cheap, FPV (first person view) drones in particular, which became the main way for both sides to hit enemy vehicles in 2023, are seeing their hit rates fall as jamming increases. "We are already working with the concept that in the near future, there will be no connection on the front line" between pilot and UAV, said Max Makarchuk, the AI lead for Brave1, a defence tech accelerator set up by the Ukrainian government. According to Makarchuk, the percentage of FPVs that hit their target is constantly falling. Most FPV units now see a strike rate of 30-50%, while for new pilots that can be as low as 10%. He predicted that AI-operated FPV drones could post hit rates of around 80%. To counter the EW threat, makers including Swarmer have started developing functions which allow a drone to lock onto a target through its camera. EW systems form an invisible signal-jamming dome over the equipment and soldiers which they protect. If a pilot's contact with the drone is cut, they can no longer control it and the craft either plummets to the ground or continues flying straight on. Automating the final part of a drone's flight to its target means that it no longer needs the pilot - thus nullifying the effect of the EW's jamming. AI-enabled drones have been in development for years, but had hitherto been seen as expensive and experimental. Bendett said Russia had been developing AI-enabled aerial and ground drones before the 2022 invasion, and had claimed some successes. In Ukraine, the key task for manufacturers is to produce an AI targeting system for drones which is cheap. That would allow it to be deployed en masse along the entire 1,000 km (621 mile) front line, where thousands of FPV drones are used up each week. Costs can be brought down by running AI programmes on a Raspberry Pi, a small, cheap computer which has found global popularity outside the educational purposes it was designed for. Makarchuk said he estimated the cost of putting in a simple targeting system, which would lock onto a shape visible to the drone's camera, at only about $150 per drone. Read Comments

Ukraine Builds AI Drone Fleets to Combat Russian Forces

A drone flying over Ukraine in June 2024. (Credit: Global Images Ukraine/Contributor via Getty Images) Ukrainian tech startups like Vyriy and Swarmer are building AI-powered drones to help the country combat Russia's ongoing invasion. Swarmer's drones can be deployed in fleets of dozens flying simultaneously, adapting to each other's movements and able to complete strikes or surveillance missions without continuous human involvement. Ukraine is looking to deploy autonomous drone fleets in the war, which Swarmer CEO Serhiy Kupriienko says requires automation at scale. "For a swarm of 10 or 20 drones or robots, it's virtually impossible for humans to manage them," Kupriienko said in an interview with ABS-CBN this week. A human operator might struggle to operate five drones, while AI could potentially manage "hundreds" at a time. Swarmer's AI system is able to plan out each drone's movements and behavior and predict other drones' moves, as well. While Ukraine has already been developing and using drones on the battlefield against Russia for over a year now, Russian signal jamming poses a concern because it can cause human-operated drones to stop working mid-flight. AI-powered drones, however, are not impacted by this type of signal jamming because once a human assigns the AI drones a mission, there are no further signals sent to the drones in order to complete the task. The AI lead for a Ukraine-backed tech accelerator told Reuters that drone plans are being developed with the eventual goal of no human connection to drones on the front lines of the war, estimating that AI-powered drone strikes will be substantially more effective than human-guided ones. "We need maximum automation," said Ukraine's minister of digital transformation Mykhailo Fedorov, The New York Times reported this month. "These technologies are fundamental to our victory." While some autonomous drones are still in development, others have already been used on the battlefield to take out Russian targets, according to CNN and the NYT. In April, CNN reported that Ukrainian AI-powered drones with machine vision have been targeting Russian energy sources, like oil refineries. Even autonomous weaponized helicopters are reportedly in the works, which would further lessen the need for direct human involvement in the ongoing war. "They have this thing called 'machine vision,' which is a form of AI. Basically you take a model and you have it on a chip and you train this model to identify geography and the target it is navigating to," Noah Sylvia, a research analyst at the UK think tank Royal United Services Institute, told CNN of the AI drones. This demand for autonomous drones poses some ethical concerns, but could reduce the human cost of the war. Ukraine's death toll exceeded 70,000 as of August last year since Russia's invasion in 2022, according to an NYT report cited by Congress. Ukraine itself, however, has reported much lower numbers, with President Volodymyr Zelensky asserting that 31,000 Ukrainian troops had died as of February this year.