A major Russian missile and drone attack kills one, causes damage across Ukraine. Ukraine uses AI-powered drone swarms to attack Russian positions, the WSJ says. Ukraine constructs underground living facilities for recruits at training centers, top commander says
Major Russian missile, drone attack kills one, causes damage across Ukraine
Russia carried out a mass missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight into Wednesday, killing one person in the region of Khmelnytskyi.
Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia had launched 502 Shahed and decoy drones and 24 cruise missiles toward Ukraine, including 16 Kalibr sea-launched cruise missiles from the Black Sea and eight Kh-101 cruise missiles from Tu-95MS strategic bombers flying in the Saratov and Krasnodar regions. The drones were launched from the area of Russia’s Kursk, Bryansk, Millerovo, Oryol, Shatalovo and Primorsko-Akhtarsk, and from Cape Chauda in occupied Crimea.
Ukraine’s air defenses shot down or otherwise neutralized 430 drones, 14 Kalibr missiles and seven Kh-101 cruise missiles. Three missiles and 69 drones hit target in 14 locations, and debris from missiles and drones fell in 14 sites, the Air Force added.
The Air Force and other branches of the Ukrainian military deployed aircraft, surface-to-air missile troops, electronic warfare units and mobile teams to repel the attack.
A man born in 1980 was killed following a Russian strike on a site in Khmelnytskyi region, head of the regional military administration, Serhiy Tyurin said. A search and rescue effort to find him included a dog team, he added. Two missiles and three drones were shot down over the region, with one more disappearing off radar, Tyurin said.
A Russian attack cut power to more than 30,000 consumers in Chernihiv region, head of the regional military administration, Vyacheslav Chaus said.
“The enemy once again hit a critical civilian infrastructure facility, causing power cuts to more than 30,000 households in the Nizhyn district. Repair workers are fixing [the damaged facility],” he said.
Ukraine starts using AI-powered drone swarms to attack Russian positions, WSJ says
Ukraine has started using artificial intelligence to allow groups of drones to coordinate with each other to attack Russian positions, an innovative technology that heralds the future of battle, The Wall Street Journal said on Tuesday. The paragraphs below are quoted from the article.
Military experts say the so-called swarm technology represents the next frontier for drone warfare because of its potential to allow tens or even thousands of drones—or swarms—to be deployed at once to overwhelm the defenses of a target, be that a city or an individual military asset.
Ukraine has conducted swarm attacks on the battlefield for much of the past year, according to a senior Ukrainian officer and the company that makes the software. The previously unreported attacks are the first known routine use of swarm technology in combat, analysts say, underscoring Ukraine’s position at the vanguard of drone warfare.
Swarming marries two rising forces in modern warfare: AI and drones. Companies and militaries around the world are racing to develop software that uses AI to link and manage groups of unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, leaving them to communicate and coordinate with each other after launch.
But the use of AI on the battlefield is also raising ethical concerns that machines could be left to decide the fate of combatants and civilians.
The drones deployed in the recent Ukrainian attack used technology developed by local company Swarmer. Its software allows groups of drones to decide which one strikes first and adapt if, for instance, one runs out of battery, said Chief Executive Serhii Kupriienko.
“You set the target and the drones do the rest,” Kupriienko said. “They work together, they adapt.”
Swarmer’s technology was first deployed by Ukrainian forces to lay mines around a year ago. It has since been used to target Russian soldiers, equipment and infrastructure, according to the Ukrainian military officer.
The officer said his drone unit had used Swarmer’s technology more than a hundred times, and that other units also have UAVs equipped with the software. He typically uses the technology with three drones, but says others have deployed it with as many as eight. Kupriienko said the software has been tested with up to 25 drones.
A common operation uses a reconnaissance drone and two other UAVs carrying small bombs to target a Russian trench, the officer said. An operator gives the drones a target zone to look for an enemy position and the command to engage when it is spotted. The reconnaissance drone maps the route for the bombers to follow and the drones themselves then decide when, and which one, will release the bombs over the target.
Three people are involved in these missions: a planner, a drone operator and a navigator. Without the swarm software, nine people would be required, the officer said. Using the technology saves time and frees up personnel to work on other tasks, he added.
“You don’t require a separate pilot for each drone, one pilot can work with many drones,” Kupriienko said.
That is a help for Ukraine, which is fighting an adversary in Russia with far greater manpower.
To be sure, the Ukrainian operations fall short of what many would consider a full swarm, said Bob Tollast, a researcher at the Royal United Services Institute, a U.K.-based think tank. That could be described as hundreds of drones moving together intelligently and autonomously reacting.
Still, “even a small level of autonomous teaming would be impressive,” Tollast said.
Swarmer said it is preparing to test a swarm of more than 100 drones.
In Ukraine, Swarmer’s technology had teething problems. At one stage, drones were swapping too much information and overloading the network, the Ukrainian officer said. The technology also makes drones more expensive. That is a negative for Ukraine, which burns through UAVs.
The U.S. and its allies require a person in the so-called kill chain under current rules of engagement.
Swarmer said a human ultimately makes the decision on whether to pull the trigger.
Ukraine constructs underground living facilities for recruits at training centers, top commander says
Works are underway to construct underground living facilities for recruits at training centers, some have them all completed, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Wednesday after a meeting on training.
On top of the meeting’s agenda, Syrskyi said, were security measures at the training centers against a backdrop of constant Russian missile and drone attacks. Ukraine’s army chief heard reports of shelter construction and deployment of air defenses and radars to protect training centers.
“A large amount of works were completed throughout summer. Efforts are underway to construct underground living facilities for recruits and set up covered passages at firing ranges. In some training centers, 100 per cent of personnel permanently live underground,” Syrskyi said.
There is still “a lot of work to do,” he added.
He said he tasked the staff to address the obstacles and complete the construction of underground living facilities in training centers as soon as possible.
The military command also discussed initial military training. The 51-day course covers tactical and technological challenges of war and could be extended, if needed, Syrskyi said.