Units of the Ukrainian armed forces are already using more than 70 different systems based on artificial intelligence and machine vision technologies to strike enemy targets, Business Insider writes, quoted by Focus. The publication reports that more than 200 Ukrainian companies are currently producing drones with artificial intelligence.
The online platform Brave1 Market, where the military can purchase drones and weapons, offers 46 solutions based on AI. These include technologies for target recognition, optical stabilization and automatic guidance. "As part of this process of introducing artificial intelligence, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense aims to ensure that 100% of front-line drones are equipped with machine vision and AI systems," the article says.
The technology has allowed more than 260 thousand enemy drones to be shot down, the ministry notes. The article emphasizes that the Ukrainian government's reliance on artificial intelligence is radically changing the use of unmanned systems.
Now critical combat tasks, from navigation and object recognition to autonomous strikes on targets, are delegated to algorithms. However, the operator, as before, retains control, making the decision to hit the target. This technology is used during flight without the use of satellite systems, when machine vision algorithms analyze the terrain and landmarks below the aircraft and compare them with downloaded maps. This provides precise determination of coordinates without a GPS signal, both day and night.
The publication adds that it is also used for object recognition, when neural networks analyze visual data to detect enemy equipment and personnel, and for target interception, when the artificial vision system allows the drone to lock on to the target during approach and autonomously continue moving towards it. This allows the drone to attack targets even after losing communication with the operator due to electronic warfare.
For the algorithms to work effectively, large volumes of verified data are required. This is provided by the Brave1 Dataroom, a secure environment where developers have access to structured data sets. This is necessary for testing, training and improving artificial intelligence-based solutions for military applications, especially for intercepting air targets.
More than 100 Ukrainian companies already have access to the platform. They train models using real data collected in different weather conditions and at different times of the day. For this purpose, various sensors are used, including optical and thermal imaging.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has provided defense companies with access to the Avengers Labs platform, designed to train artificial intelligence models for unmanned systems using data from real battlefields. The platform uses a dataset of 5 million images depicting various types of military equipment, which is constantly updated with new data.
The set includes tanks, artillery, air defense systems, infantry and air targets, including Shahed drones and reconnaissance drones, the article also says.