Ukraine is developing offensive missiles supplemented with artificial intelligencea first and important step now that offensive weapons are becoming increasingly autonomous.
Brave1the Ukrainian state-backed innovation platform, confirmed to Business Insider that several companies involved in this initiative are developing AI-enabled missiles.
Ukrainian companies have widely integrated AI into their drones and war robots, enabling functions such as decision-making, navigation and targeting. Missiles are new.
“AI was initially widely deployed in drones,” Andrii Hrytseniuk, CEO of Brave1, told Business Insider. “It’s not that fast – it’s enough for the drones, but missiles require much higher speeds.”
Hrytseniuk said that AI is now “also increasingly integrated into missile systems. Although it has not yet reached the scale of hundreds of solutions that we see in the drone sector, we are already seeing the first successes and many developments are underway.”
More than 200 Ukrainian companies developed AI-based parts for missiles, drones, radars and other systems, Hrytseniuk said in an earlier interview in May.
Ukraine has invested heavily in the development of cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. Now it is focusing on integrating AI into its weapons. Frédéric Petry/Hans Lucas via Reuters Connect
Efforts to integrate AI into missiles appear to have increased as Kiev invests in their development long-range weaponsoften used to attack military and energy targets on Russian territory.
Mykhailo Fedorov, the former Minister of Defense of Ukraine, who pushed for progress in innovation on the battlefield and just high-profile venture fund in Kiev to invest in military startups, said this week that one of his priorities is “cheap strike missiles and ultimately missiles powered by AI.”
It is unclear how Ukrainian companies are using AI in the country’s missiles and how far along they are in the development process. The technology will expand Kiev’s capabilities, but will not completely remove humans from the process, Brave1 said.
The approach reflects Ukraine’s use of AI in war systems more broadly. Both soldiers and defense companies have emphasized that people must remain involved in operations in some capacity, saying that drones cannot act entirely on their own.
The war has become significant more autonomous last year when Ukrainian and Russian drones flooded the battlefield. They constantly monitor the front lines, creating an area miles wide “death zone” where any movement could trigger a precision attack.
Ukrainian officials plan to replace soldiers with ground robots and drones in particularly dangerous missions – such as casualty evacuation and logistics – wherever and whenever possible, reflecting the drive to become more autonomous.
