Ukraine Launches Dozens Of Artificial Intelligence Systems Help Drone Target Increase

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

JAKARTA - Ukraine uses dozens of domestically-made systems equipped with AI (fabricated intelligence) so that its drones can achieve targets on the battlefield without being piloted, a senior official said, revealing new details about the race against Russia to take advantage of automation.

Systems that use artificial intelligence allow cheap drones carrying explosives to find or fly to their targets in areas protected by extensive signal interference, which has reduced the effectiveness of manually piloted drones.

Shifting towards AI use, particularly in drone targets and flight control searches, is an important part of the tech race that has been going on since Russia launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022.

"Currently there are several dozen solutions on the market from Ukrainian manufacturers. They were purchased and delivered to armed forces and other defense forces," Ukraine Deputy Defense Minister Kateryna Chernohorenko said of the AI drone system.

He said they are currently being used in a directed manner in special operations.

The drone system is in great demand by soldiers who are looking for ways to beat the rapidly increasing use of electronic warfare on the battlefield.

Electronic warfare systems created protective domes around their sites by sending strong signals that interfered with communications between drones and their pilots, causing them to lose control of the plane and miss the target.

This system, which used to only be used to protect high-value equipment, has become a common feature in trenches and in ordinary vehicles used by soldiers as they try to protect themselves from the threat of a first-person view drone (FPV).

This small and inexpensive drone, originally created for civilian enthusiasts for racing, has since become the most commonly used attack drone on the battlefield, with the two countries increasing their production to millions per year.

A Ukrainian official told Reuters in July most of the target levels of the first-person viewing unit had fallen to 30 percent-50 percent, while for new pilots the attack rate could be as low as 10 percent, with disruption being a major problem.

The official estimated that the drone's view of the first person operated with AI could reach a success rate of around 80 percent.

Samuel Bendett, senior researcher at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington-based think tank, said statements from officials on both sides showed automation was likely to play an important role in the next phase of the war, but are currently not widespread.

"At this point of conflict, we see the application of this technology on a small scale as many developers try to position themselves and their drones as the right solution," he said.

"Currently, the solution is relatively simple and is often based on the commercial technology that has been available even before the war, but more complicated features can also be available," he explained.

Ukraine is also using drone interceptors to bring down large numbers of Russian camera surveillance drones that help target artillery and missile strikes against Ukraine's targets behind the line.

Meanwhile, Chernohorenko, a defense official, said the aircraft also needed to be equipped with an AI target.

"Russian unmanned aircraft caused major problems on the front lines, (but) now they were shot down quite effectively by our interceptors."

Separately, Dmytro Vovchuk, head of operations for NORMA Dynamics, a Ukrainian company that makes software for unmanned aircraft, told Reuters they had made products that used computer vision, a type of AI technology, to guide the drone to its target.

The software allows pilots to select targets via unmanned aircraft cameras, and at that time the aircraft completes the rest of its flight automatically.

The company has sold more than 15,000 units of its automated targeting software to drone manufacturers, with more than 10,000 of them shipped.

While roughly that's a huge number, it's still a fraction of the 4 million unmanned aircraft Ukraine says are now capable of being produced annually.

Vovchuk said attacks were not always visually certain because of the large number of electronic warfare systems around high-value targets.

"From what we have seen, three tanks were completely destroyed by our system, as well as many (attacks) on logistics targets," he said, adding the system had also been used to attack the base.

"Things maintained by electronic warfare, this system has allowed attacks on previously ineffective targets in terms of costs to be attacked," he added.