Ukraine Develops Drones With AI To Overcome Disturbances In Russian Signals In Battlefield

Ukrainian drone forces on the battlefield. (Twitter/@ZelenskyyUa)

JAKARTA - A startup company in Ukraine is developing an artificial intelligence (AI) system to help fly a large fleet of unmanned aircraft, bringing war to unmeasured territory as fighters race to gain technological advantages in combat.

Ukraine hopes that the launch of drones with AI at the forefront of fighting will help it overcome increasing signal disruptions by Russia, as well as allow unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to work in larger groups.

The development of AI drones in Ukraine is widely divided between visual systems that help identify targets and fly drones to those targets, field mappings for navigation and more complex programs that allow UAVs to operate in interconnected "groups".

One of the companies working on this is Swarmer, which is developing software connecting drones in a network.

Decisions can be implemented instantly across groups, with only a human being stepping in to give the green light to automatic attacks.

"When you try to scale up (with human pilots), it won't work," Swarmer CEO Serhiy Kuprienko told Reuters at the company's office in Kyiv.

"For a group of 10 or 20 drones or robots, it is almost impossible for humans to control them," he said.

Swarmer is one of the more than 200 tech companies that have emerged since Russia launched a full-scale invasion in 2022, with civilians set in IT developing drones and other devices to help Ukraine fight much larger enemies.

Kuprienko said while human pilots had difficulty carrying out operations involving more than five drones, AI would be able to process hundreds of drones.

The system, called Styx, directs a network of reconnaissance and attack drones, both large and small, in the air and on land. Each drone will be able to plan its own movements and predict the behavior of other drones in a swarm of drones, he said.

In addition to increasing operations, Kuprienko said automation would help protect unmanned aircraft pilots operating near the front lines and become a priority target for enemy fire.

"Swarmer technology is still in the development stage and has only been experimentally tested on the battlefield," he added.

Separately, Samuel Bendett, Senior Researcher at Center for a New American Security said the AI drone control system may require humans to prevent the system from making mistakes in target selection.

AI has been used in several long-range Ukrainian drone attacks targeting hundreds of kilometers of military facilities and oil refineries within Russia.

A Ukrainian official, who spoke anonymously, told Reuters that the attack sometimes involved a swarm of about 20 drones.

The core drone flew to the target, while another drone task is to destroy or divert air defenses along the way.

To do this, they use AI shapes with human surveillance to help find targets or threats and plan possible routes, the source added.

It is known, the need for AI-capable drones is becoming increasingly urgent as both sides launch an Electronic Warfare (EW) system that interferes with signals between pilots and drones.

To counter the EW threat, creators including Swarmer have begun developing a function that allows drones to lock targets through their cameras.

The EW system forms an invisible signal dome over the equipment and soldiers they protect.

If pilot contacts with drones break, they can no longer control them and the plane will crash to the ground or continue to fly straight.