AI drones: how Ukraine is driving artificial intelligence forward in the drone war

By no means every drone has four propellers and moves through the air like a helicopter – and yet the quadcopter continues to shape the image of the drone war in Ukraine, in which AI drones are now gaining importance. When it comes to longer distances and longer flight times, the fixed-wing drone, which is aerodynamically more efficient, dominates. What counts as a longer distance is relative, however: for quadcopters, ranges of 40 kilometres are no longer anything out of the ordinary.

Distances could grow further too, because the course has been set for a new technological leap – or, more precisely, it can be set. Units that no longer want to fly with cable can already buy AI modules today that make human control, let alone control by cable, superfluous. Because the cable spool has its weight, dropping it leaves more payload for a larger battery and thus for additional range.

Few suppliers, high expectations

Compared with the number of drone manufacturers, the circle of Ukrainian companies working on artificial intelligence for the drone war is small: barely a dozen are exhibiting at the Drone Autonomy Symposium in Lviv. Measured against the more than 200 drone manufacturers in Ukraine, that seems negligible.

Nevertheless, the event is permeated by the hope of a lasting asymmetric advantage over Russia. The self-confidence that drone technology has given Ukrainians is shown by a statement from Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov, an electronic warfare expert. Since January he has been technology adviser to Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. In Flash’s view, Ukraine has only one way to preserve its status as a “legislator in the field of unmanned technology”: the implementation of AI together with the associated management systems.

Unlike at Western defence trade fairs, what counts above all in Ukraine, even for AI systems, is low prices, high quantities and rapid availability. Nobody expects a long service life from any of the systems. Kamikaze systems do not survive their single mission anyway, and even for reusable systems a service life of a week is more likely than a whole month.

Friendly and hostile drones saturate the airspace almost completely. The figures: over the past year, 30 million drone flights were recorded along the front – with a front around 1,000 kilometres long, that is an average of more than 80 per day and kilometre. Given the production volumes on both sides, this will not change. Whether a drone belongs to friendly forces or the enemy is currently difficult to tell. Ukraine has therefore recently begun to mark its own drones with “invasion stripes”.

More drones than pilots can fly

According to Kyrylo Budanov, formerly head of military intelligence and now Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, there is no longer any point in simply increasing the number of drones quantitatively. The reason: since around the turn of the year, Ukraine has been producing more tactical drones than pilots can fly – even though the drone forces are steadily gaining personnel. Budanov: “Both we and the enemy have reached a certain maximum in the use of control technologies. The next step is the full integration of artificial intelligence.”

AI is intended to finally bring order to the chaos and make it possible to distinguish friend from foe. It is expected to contribute significantly to obtaining a complete air picture of drones – from detection, recognition and tracking through engagement to early warning of friendly forces. In this way, AI is intended to make victory in the drone war possible, not least because Russia, as expected, will not be able to keep up in the quantity and quality of microelectronics.

Budanov continued: “We need a transition to autonomous systems capable of identifying targets and manoeuvring independently. Such developments already exist in Ukraine, and I am convinced that they will soon come as a surprise to the enemy.”

What AI drones carry on board

On board the drone, AI works in the sensors and control. The camera modules measure around 10x10x2 centimetres and contain either a daylight, a starlight or an infrared camera. They detect and track targets either autonomously or after selection by the operator, and generate the control signals to the drone’s target themselves. Autonomous target identification using stored signatures is also possible.

Communication modules have now moved beyond the commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) domain. Today the focus is on digital encryption and frequency hopping across wide bandwidths, hidden in the background noise. Around 150 drone models already use such communication boards. With suitable AI modules, drones already fly autonomously into their area of operations and report to the operator as soon as they have arrived or detected a possible target.

The videos reach the operator via the drone group itself – as if along a string of pearls. Navigation within the group works on the same principle: radio beacons the size of a handheld radio transmit position signals independently of GPS, also using frequency hopping and on much wider bands than the satellite signal.

Once the operator has marked the target, he can control the approach himself or hand it over to the AI. Meanwhile, the drone group continues searching on its own. For now, a maximum range of around 160 kilometres is planned.

To bring the technology to the troops, the Ukrainian military has set up suitable personnel structures: lead units have commanders assigned for system development, complemented by “lessons learned” groups for doctrine work.

Whether all this succeeds will be decided not least by the troops themselves. When buying on the Amazon-like platforms, they will consider which systems they can afford and which technology they trust.

With its rapid change, the drone war continues to impress – and another major technological leap may be imminent.