AI-guided combat drones: Ukraine recommends six of seven solutions for procurement after large-scale test

Ukraine is further expanding its use of artificial intelligence and has now tested AI-guided combat drones on a large scale. In the test, conducted by the Ministry of Defence together with the Brave1 innovation cluster, the drones had to detect, lock on to and hit moving ground targets autonomously. Six of the seven solutions tested were subsequently recommended for procurement.

On the Ukrainian battlefield, autonomous terminal guidance has long been a reality. According to the Ministry of Defence, the number of successful strikes using AI-assisted terminal guidance has increased tenfold since the beginning of the year. In future, the technology is to be used far more widely.

To this end, the Ministry of Defence and Brave1 for the first time evaluated solutions from several manufacturers against a uniform scenario and clearly defined criteria. Seven companies took part in the trial with their systems.

Two-kilometre approach, target lock from 500 metres

The requirement: after a flight of two kilometres, each drone had to detect and lock on to a moving lightly armoured vehicle from a distance of at least 500 metres. The system then had to achieve the hit fully autonomously, without further pilot intervention.

Multicopters larger than ten inches were used, carrying a payload of at least two kilograms. Each company was allowed up to three attempts; to pass, at least two of them had to be successful.

Six of the seven manufacturers tested met these requirements. Their systems were subsequently recommended for procurement by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

AI-guided combat drones with human authorisation

Even as artificial intelligence is used more and more, a human is still to decide whether to strike. Detection, tracking and automatic guidance to the target are accordingly handled by AI and computer vision – but authorisation to strike is given by a human.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence and Brave1 now intend to deploy such technologies on a larger scale. According to official figures, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are already attacking enemy targets with more than 70 different systems based on AI and computer vision.

The trend is thus clear: increasingly, drone pilots no longer steer all the way to impact themselves, but select the target and leave the final phase of the attack to the machine.