"Radical Tactics Even the US Hasn't Tried"… Ukraine Creates World's First '100% Drone Unit' [Tech Talk]

A Drone Unit That Even the U.S. and U.K. Have Not Deployed
Ukraine Becomes the First to Use Fully Automated Forces
Low-Cost Automation Achieved Through Open-Source AI

As the Russia-Ukraine ceasefire negotiations led by U.S. President Donald Trump remain at an impasse, the frontline battles continue unabated. Recently, the Ukrainian military succeeded in airstriking Russian forces using a unit composed entirely of drones, called the 'Ground Unmanned Robotics Unit.' This is the first case of its kind, even among advanced militaries with developed military technology. Ukraine created high-performance drones through publicly available open-source artificial intelligence (AI) models and numerous 'volunteers.'

Drones That Fly to the End Without Pilot Guidance

Drone of the Ukrainian military equipped with a bomb. Photo by Reuters and Yonhap News.

Katarina Bondar, a technical advisor to the Ukrainian government, revealed in interviews with Western media such as The Economist that a strike team composed entirely of drones recently attacked Russian forces. This achievement was introduced in a report authored by Bondar herself and was also published by the U.S. security think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Drones are used for various purposes such as reconnaissance and strikes, but due to low attack success rates, it has been difficult to deploy units composed entirely of drones on the battlefield. Typically, the Ukrainian military operates drones via radio remote control, but this method is easily neutralized by radio frequency jammers. According to Bondar's analysis, the attack success rate of conventional drones was below 10%. Because of this, drone operators had to control drones directly at close range to the target. They had to approach as close as 100 meters to as far as 1 kilometer from the target, which involves enormous risk considering that the effective range of rifle bullets is around 250 meters.

Small drones can only be operated at close range because they can be interfered with or neutralized by jammers. Yonhap News

However, the new drones equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) fly directly into the target without relying on the operator once a certain distance is reached. While humans still set the target and issue attack commands, the process of flying toward the target is fully automated. Thanks to this, operators can conduct attack missions without being exposed on the battlefield.

Radical Tactics Not Even Attempted by the U.S.

According to Shashank Joshi, military and diplomatic editor at The Economist, Ukraine’s drone unit employed radical tactics that have not yet been attempted even by countries like the U.S. and the U.K. It is even more remarkable that Ukraine accomplished these tactics at an extremely low cost.

Bondar stated that Ukraine’s latest drones became feasible thanks to open-source AI and 'volunteers.' For drones to identify and fly toward designated targets using cameras, computer vision?a type of image recognition AI?is required. This technology distinguishes specific objects within a photo. Instead of developing this AI themselves, the Ukrainian military downloaded and tested free models shared on open-source sites like GitHub.

AI automatic target tracking system screen applied by Ukrainian drone manufacturer 'Wild Hornet'. Wild Hornet homepage

Additionally, the Ukrainian military focused its efforts on securing data to train the AI. At the frontline, they can capture high-resolution photos of Russian tanks, armored vehicles, weapons, and uniforms that can serve as targets at any time. Particularly, the Ukrainian military received numerous images shared by civilian volunteers across the country and reprocessed these images to build a 'combat dataset.' The computer vision AI trained on this dataset can accurately select only Russian military equipment for strikes.

Bondar explained that instead of obsessing over cutting-edge technology, the Ukrainian military and government concentrated resources and capabilities on flexible and agile small-scale projects, which led to the successful development of new drones equipped with AI. She said, "The Ukrainian leadership initially attempted grand AI projects, but soon realized that useful AI can be created with small datasets."

Now, the Ukrainian military has begun sharing their know-how with weapon-supplying countries such as the U.S. and the U.K. Despite having a national GDP lower than Iraq’s and sustaining total war for three years, the country has developed technological capabilities comparable to military powers.

Regarding Ukraine’s achievement, Bondar emphasized, "Ukraine did not try to create advanced killer robots like the Terminator. Unlike the bureaucratic attitude of Western countries, Ukraine is much more open to trying and testing every possible means to fight Russia."