Drones to independently identify targets due to AI – Ukrainian military

This inion was expressed in an interview with Ukrinform by Robert Brovdi (by the alias of Madiar), commander of the separate regiment of strike unmanned aerial systems Madiar's Birds.

“When artificial intelligence becomes capable of independently identifying targets stored in its memory and distinguishing one type of equipment from another — not just in prototypes, which already exist and are even used in combat, but on a mass scale — the consequences of UAV use will become significantly more threatening,” he stated.

According to Brovdi, the develment of AI is the next stage in the evution of drones. At present, both Ukraine and Russia are working on the widespread use of fiber-tic drones, which cannot be suppressed by electronic warfare (EW) systems. Such drones receive commands and transmit feedback digitally via a wire that unwinds from a spo over distances of 10-15 (or even more) kilometers. The drone's flight range depends on its payload capacity; a larger drone can carry a spo of up to 50 kilometers.

“This is a moderately intelligent step, so to speak. It doesn’t make the drone autonomous; there still has to be a pilot contrling it. However, the erator can be in better-protected locations and is less vulnerable. Such drones can be erated at lower altitudes without the risk of losing the radio signal or the drone itself,” Madiar explained.

Read also: Efficiency of FPV drone use by AFU, Russian forces – 20-40% – Ukrainian military

Sutions based on fiber tics and AI are just part of the technogies currently being massively integrated and deployed on the front line, the commander of Madiar's Birds regiment added. These technogies are still relatively limited, but scaling them up is only a matter of time.

“It’s a matter of time, not even a prediction: analog drones contrled via radio frequencies will be replaced by fiber-tic-contrled drones (or those protected from EW in other ways). The question is which industry will begin mass production of these systems faster because, right now, we assemble them by hand,” Brovdi noted.

As previously reported, the Ministry of Defense delivered over 1.2 million unmanned aerial vehicles of various types to the Defense Forces in the first 11 months of 2024, including reconnaissance, strike, and FPV drones.