Artificial intelligence in UAVs: how it changed the course of air defense
Blende
Looking through the next news from the Northern Military District zone a couple of months ago, I came across an interesting report from Ukrainian sources, I quote: “recently the Russian military allegedly attacked with infantry on a BMP-3, then it turned out that mannequins were sitting on the armor to divert our firepower, and the infantry unit itself the enemy tried to enter from the other flank.”
It is likely that we have witnessed not just a distracting maneuver for the optics of the APU, where a human operator is used as an observer, but a decoy for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based on artificial intelligence (hereinafter referred to as AI-UAV), which is absolutely not susceptible to electronic warfare and hunts on the battlefield independently, based on AI-based algorithms.
The use of AI UAVs is gaining momentum around the world. It is no secret that the development of this type of UAV is currently underway in the United States and its sponsored Ukraine. In June 2023, news came from the United States that an AI-based drone conditionally attacked its own operator, considering him an obstacle to completing the task. But I would rephrase this news differently. Most likely, the UAV mistook the operator’s silhouette for an enemy target, because the software, for example, did not include identifying marks on the operator’s uniform, and it mistook the operator for the enemy. That is, in this case, the software on the basis of which this version of AI was created failed.
And already in September 2023, the Armed Forces of Ukraine received permission from the Ministry of Defense to use Saker Scout UAVs controlled by a program based on artificial intelligence, which, most likely, has already pretty much drunk the blood of the Russian Armed Forces.
Russia is actively participating in this high-tech arms race and, although the information here is mostly classified, some of it ends up on our philistine Network. For example, a few days ago there was already sensational news about the release of a new version drones-kamikaze "Lancet". According to the developers, now these UAVs can “act together” and are designed to work in “swarms” controlled by a neural network that distributes targets for strikes among individual drones.
In an interview with the chief engineer, when asked how protected they are from electronic warfare, he replied that the new Lancets are not at all susceptible to the influence of electronic warfare of any power. When asked to clarify what he meant, he smiled and chose not to reveal details. Anyone “in the know” understands what this means: there is a rapid development of not only AI chats like GPT or Bard, but also the active development of AI for military purposes, be it UAVs or ground-based drones for mine clearance and infantry support.
As I mentioned above, the main difference between the new generation of AI-based drones is that not only do they not need an operator to guide their drone to the target, but, perhaps more importantly, these drones are not sensitive to absolutely any means of electronic warfare, on which huge amounts of money are now being spent on both sides of the front.
And although, as in the case of infantry fighting vehicles with mannequins on the armor, this is a good way to divert fire from manpower on the battlefield, it is not the most effective.
Firstly, AI is constantly being improved, for example, it can be taught to recognize the movement of infantry on armor and only after that open fire, i.e., distinguish a living target from a dummy.
Secondly, an AI-based UAV can visit another UAV that is outside the electronic warfare range and that has transmitted the exact coordinates or movement vector of equipment or infantry. After this, an AI-based UAV comes into action, which is inertially guided to the target detection area, and then upon arrival at a given square, it is automatically activated to self-determinate the target in priority order, that is, artificial intelligence enters the scene. Such a move is capable of weeding out a significant part of the placed deceptions in positions or in advancing troop formations. Therefore, drones of this type should ideally be destroyed, rather than distracting them and provoking them to waste ammunition.
Counteraction
And here we come to the most interesting part, namely, possible methods of countering UAVs with integrated AI. Let's think about it, how, in fact, can you shoot down such a “bird” if you can’t jam it with the help of good old electronic warfare?
Three options come to mind so far (readers can readily add their own versions in the comments).
So, option one, the simplest and already proven: destroying the drone with a kinetic hit.
Now the Pantsir air defense systems can already detect even small UAVs on radars and destroy them with twin cannons or even mini-missiles, which, however, is more expensive. The same was demonstrated at the training ground near Novorossiysk, where a meeting of the council of the ERA technopolis was held. With this option, the Pantsir is simply obliged to become one of the most popular weapons in the army, if, of course, its effectiveness is really high. Moreover, this air defense system, in addition to machine guns and missiles, must have built-in electronic warfare, since along with AI-UAVs, classic drones with operators, read – with radio communications, will continue to be used.
True, questions remain here too. So, if, for example, a swarm of dummy UAVs will first force the air defense system to discharge all its ammunition on them, and in the second wave there will be deadly “birds” that will freely attack the given targets.
The second option is more expensive, but potentially more effective than the same “Pantsir”, and is still weapons future. We are talking about EMP - electromagnetic weapons that use a magnetic field or the energy of electromagnetic radiation directly to hit a target.
In simple words, imagine that a swarm of AI drones is flying, and a small missile flies into this group of UAVs, which uses an electromagnetic wave to burn the electronics of enemy drones, say, within a radius of 1 km. I was unable to find information on the use of this type of weapon, but I am sure that it exists at a minimum in the form of large missiles or bombs that are stored for large wars.
The question now is whether such weapons are already on the battlefield or are they just being created to combat swarms of AI-based UAVs that are not susceptible to electronic warfare.
The third option is the secret Peresvet complex, which can also be classified as a weapon of the future due to its novelty and high cost. But potentially this complex can surpass the two options described above in efficiency if we make it more mobile and come up with a more efficient power plant for it, since this weapon of this operating principle requires a lot of energy. And although the Russian Armed Forces do not disclose their successes in this field, we well remember video confirmation of the successful destruction of a UAV by a laser system in Israel a couple of years ago during an exercise.
It would also be a good idea to increase the masking of positions.
The more different mannequins in positions, the better. Moreover, mannequins in uniform and with elementary mechanisms that come to life as soon as an enemy bird appears in the sky, which cannot be drowned out. In this case, all positions of the dummies are read and stored in the AI’s memory when entering a repeat lap. These camouflage dummies must be constantly changed in position.
By the way, in the video reports from the SVO zone in Telegram channels, I already noticed the first such mannequins at the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and, by the way, a Russian UAV dropped suspended ammunition on it, mistaking it for a live target. Moreover, the mannequin remained standing without moving.
Hack and predictor Aviator
As we see, the old truth is confirmed that war is the engine of progress.
With the advent of more advanced AI, more technologically complex weapons appear and rapidly develop, which require a reliable and equally technologically advanced equivalent shield.
I would only like to wish all of us that the war ends with negotiations as soon as possible, and that all the announced and unspoken military developments give impetus to the development of civilian equipment and technologies!
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