Deputy defence minister says weapon that homes in on target autonomously will be less susceptible to Russian electronic blockers
8 April 2024 •
Ukraine is developing artificially intelligent drones that will be harder for Russia to shoot down, The Telegraph can disclose.
The push to create an image recognition targeting system, which can autonomously hunt and strike targets, is backed by more than £200 million in Western finance from a UK-led drone coalition.
Kateryna Chernohorenko,Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, said the system would make one-way attack drones less susceptible to Russian electronic blockers and allow pilots to operate them further from the front line.
The official, who leads Kyiv’s negotiations on drones, said it was being developed as a “joint venture” alongside members of the £1.2 billion scheme.
“The great challenge is the last mile of engagement taking into account that more and more individual electronic warfare systems are available,” Ms Chernohorenko said.
“Our drones should be more effective and should be guided towards the target without any operators.
“It should be based on visual navigation. We also call it ‘last-mile targeting’, homing in according to the image.”
How Ukraine’s ‘unstoppable’ AI drones could work:
4.
AI guidance makes the drone much harder to jam or intercept, meaning it is more likely to hit its target.
The drone would be launched and piloted by a human to about a mile before their target.
At that point, AI would take over, guiding the drone to its eventual target and making it harder for Russia to jam any signals back to the pilot.
A fifth of the finances raised through the drone capability coalition, spearheaded by Britain and Latvia, is being set aside by Kyiv for the manufacture of the next generation of combat drones.
British defence sources have denied that the Government will play any role in producing autonomous drones alongside Ukrainian engineers.
Ukraine’s drone programme has proved hugely controversial in recent weeks, with the United States publicly condemning Kyiv’s deep strikes on oil refineries inside Russia.
Western intelligence officials have acknowledged Ukraine’s armed forces have access to drones capable of hitting targets more than 600 miles away.
Tweaks and innovations have made both commercially produced and homemade UAVs lethal weapons in the war between Ukraine and Russia.
Ukraine’s defence ministry believes its fleet of naval drones have inflicted losses on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet “at a ratio one to 10 in the context of price”.
Ukrainian forces have become increasingly reliant on the devices to compensate for shortages of more conventional weapons fuelled by the United States’ delayed $60 billion aid package.
Western officials have warned the shortages of weapons and ammunition have forced Ukraine to cede ground to advancing Russian troops.
Because of the urgency, half of the funds raised by the international coalition are being used to purchase readily available UAVs from Ukrainian producers.
“We understand the joint ventures are quite a long way [away] and it’s not a fast way but we want to move in this direction to have joint ventures, to prove we’re fast and can produce technological weapons,” Ms Chernohorenko said.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “We are leading the way in providing lethal aid to Ukraine, including over 10,000 drones, which can attack targets at sea, provide surveillance and are first-person view.
“The UK is also a joint leader of the drone capability coalition, which is supplying thousands of drones to Ukraine which have proven highly effective on the battlefield.”
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Article’s comments section has been absolutely trolled to fuck. But here are a few good ones:
Debbie Rowley
Maybe try peace talks. A lot cheaper with less deaths.
Terry Walsh
Reply to Debbie Rowley:
How can you have peace talks with a dictator? Putler has never honoured any agreements. There was an agreement in place until he invaded. Again. In case you forgot that it was Putler who started this barbaric war. He can end it tomorrow if he wants to. All he has to do is get out of all of Ukraine for good. Including Crimea. Send ALL the stolen children back home to their families. Each and every one of them. Repatriate all the POW’S. Clear up all the minefields. Pay reparations. End of war. Quite simple really.
Russia lays down their weapons =peace
Ukraine lays down their weapons =no more Ukraine
Putler has said in his many public speeches, Ukraine doesn’t exist. Ukrainians have no right to exist. They are all Nazis and need to be wiped out. And he won’t stop with Ukraine either. He said so himself. Moldova and Georgia are his too. He wants the old empire back.
Rachel Moore
Why are we sacrificing our children’s future by rushing headlong into a nuclear war with Russia? And don’t give me any rubbish about Russia taking over the World. So far they have taken two years and all they have succeeded in doing is securing territory that was previously Russian and is full of ethnic Russians.
Terry Walsh
Reply to Rachel Moore
It’s not full of ethnic Russians. Those that are there have been put there by Putler. But you know that don’t you. And you clearly have not heard his speeches have you. He wants the old empire back. It ain’t rubbish.
Terry Walsh: kudos to you. You “get it.”