KYIV - Ukraine plans to expand its operational use of artificial intelligence-enabled autonomous drones against Russian forces by the end of this year, a representative from a Ukrainian government platform recently told Kyodo News.
The goal is to use technological innovation to improve the precision and target-identification capabilities of both offensive and defensive operations and help Ukraine seize the initiative in the war against Russia, which has a significant advantage in troop numbers.
While AI drones are already in use in the war, the planned expansion of use would be of the more advanced drones that are fully autonomous in their navigation, according to the representative from Brave-1, a platform responsible for developing defense technology strategies and supporting related companies.
The representative stressed, however, that humans will remain in control and give final approval for the drone's actions, in accordance with international humanitarian law.
"This drone is capable of takeoff, cruising, navigating to the target area, searching, identifying the target, and executing its combat mission without the pilot needing to touch the controller," the representative said on June 10.
Referring to the recent use of a fully autonomous interceptor in the eastern Ukrainian province of Kharkiv, where it destroyed an enemy strike drone, the representative cited it as "an excellent example of applying the fully autonomous technologies to save lives."
The Ukrainian military plans to expand the use of fully autonomous drones for both attack and interception, but the specific timeline and scale have not been disclosed.
The representative said autonomy of the drone becomes even more important on flights over 100 kilometers as distance complicates communications and control, particularly given the Earth's curvature.
Moreover, the representative believes that "AI-enabled autonomous weapons can be much more humane" as their precise target-recognition capabilities can help prevent them hitting noncombatants such as civilians, and that the impact of jamming by the Russian military can be reduced.
When asked how far they hoped to extend Ukraine's kill zone inside Russian territory, which currently stretches about 20 km across the border, the representative said that, with the development of the technology, they "hope to make the entire Russia a kill zone."
Ukraine is also building an environment that allows friendly nations to train their AI models utilizing its real combat data, with another Brave-1 representative saying they hope to deepen cooperation with Japan.
Both representatives spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
