The UK working on an autonomous drone swarm for Ukraine

18 February, 2024 Ukrainian enterprise for the production of Shrike drones for the Defense Forces. February, 2024. Ukraine.

Photo credits: Josep Borrell. The UK is working with partner nations to provide Ukraine with thousands of new AI-enabled drones. Bloomberg reported on this.

Western military planners developing the technology believe it could allow Ukraine to overwhelm certain Russian positions with unmanned vehicles. According to them, the drones could be transferred to Ukraine within months, they said, while warning the timeline could slip.

Ukrainian Shoolika mk6 drone by SkyLab UA.

2023, Ukraine. Photo from the company's page.

Although such drones will not replace the need for artillery shells, they can help mitigate the shortage and increase the dynamics of the battlefield.

Admiral Rob Bauer, chairman of NATO's military committee, told Bloomberg that Ukraine's use of drones "in combination with artificial intelligence" could be "more successful than Russian artillery fire." "Nations are looking at swarming, nations are looking at AI to improve relatively simple drones and relatively simple cameras or video systems to become much more connected to software," Bauer said, adding that there is a "never-ending race" with Russia to develop advanced technology. Militarnyi previously reported that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated that Western allies plan to supply Ukraine with one million drones by 2024.

Russian invader with remains of Darts drone, February 2024.

Most likely, this referred to the Coalition of Drones initiated by Latvia, the launch of which was reported by Militarnyi on January 18.

The UK, Sweden, and the Netherlands have already joined the Drone Coalition. The purpose of this association is to provide the Armed Forces of Ukraine with a large number of drones for various purposes. Militarnyi previously reported that Latvia and the UK will start supplying FPV drones to Ukraine within the Drone Coalition.

This is the first project to be launched from the GBP200 million (£250 million) drone package that the Prime Minister announced in January 2024.