Ukraine develops military drones with artificial intelligence to counter electronic warfare
Kyiv • UNN
Ukraine is developing AI drones to overcome Russian electronic warfare systems. This will allow drones to work in groups and increase the accuracy of strikes to 80%, compared to 30-50% for conventional FPV drones.
Ukraine hopes that the deployment of artificial intelligence drones on the front line will help it overcome growing signal jamming by the Russians, and will also allow unmanned aerial vehicles to operate in large groups, Reuters reports UNN.
Details
One of the companies working in this area is Swarmer, which develops software that connects UAVs into a network. Decisions can be made instantly by the entire group, and a human can only intervene to authorize automatic strikes.
“When you try to scale up (with human pilots), it just doesn't work,” Swarmer CEO Sergiy Kuprienko told Reuters in the company's Kyiv office. “For a swarm of 10 or 20 drones or robots, it's almost impossible to control people.
Swarmer is one of more than 200 tech firms that have sprung up since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. Information technology civilians are developing UAVs and other devices to help Ukraine counter a much more numerous enemy.
AI is already being used in some long-range strikes by Ukrainian UAVs targeting military installations and oil refineries hundreds of kilometers away from Russia.
One Ukrainian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the attacks sometimes involve a swarm of about 20 UAVs.
The main UAVs fly to the target, and the task of the rest is to destroy or divert air defense assets on the way. To do this, they use AI under human control, which helps to identify targets or threats and plan possible routes, the source added.
The need for artificially intelligent UAVs is becoming increasingly urgent as both sides implement electronic warfare (EW) systems that disrupt signals between pilots and drones.
In particular, small and cheap FPV (first-person view) UAVs, which have become the main way to defeat enemy vehicles for both sides in 2023, are falling as the obstacles increase.
“We are already working on the concept that in the near future there will be no communication between the pilot and the UAV on the front line,” says Max Makarchuk, head of AI at Brave1, a defense technology accelerator created by the Ukrainian government.
According to Makarchuk, the percentage of FPVs that hit the target is constantly falling. Most FPV systems now have a target hit rate of 30-50%, and for new pilots, this figure can reach 10%. According to his forecasts, FPV drones controlled by artificial intelligence will be able to hit targets at around 80%.
To counter the threat of EW, manufacturers, including Swarmer, have begun to develop features that allow the drone to detect a target through the camera.
Electronic warfare systems form an invisible dome of signal jamming over the equipment and soldiers they protect. If the pilot's communication with the UAV is interrupted, he can no longer control it, and the vehicle either falls to the ground or continues to fly straight.
Automation of the last part of the UAV's flight to the target means that it no longer needs a pilot, which negates the effect of EW interference.
