Already this year: our state is preparing a “swarm” of drones for autonomous work in a team

The Ministry of Statistics said that drones have already completely liberated a village in the east. Developer Serhiy Krupienko assured that the new project will be equivalent to starting a steam engine.

New weapons are being prepared in Kyiv — Styx. This will allow drones to work as a team and perform frontline tasks autonomously. Serhii Krupienko, one of the developers of the project, shared the details in a comment for The Times on June 23.

He said that soon he would be ready to launch something he had not seen before at the front — a “swarm” of up to seven AI UAVs capable of cooperating for strike and surveillance missions.

“This is the equivalent of starting a steam engine in a factory years ago. Our main mission is to make robots do the fighting, not humans. They can communicate with each other, decide who attacks, who gathers information, and they will do it faster than any person”, — emphasized Krupienko.

The developer is convinced that the combination of technologies, drones and AI will shape the future of war in the same way that tanks, radio stations and airplanes have done before. According to him, Ukraine is becoming a “testing ground for new weapons” that are being tested in battles with a powerful opponent.

Oleksandr Bornyakov, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine for IT Development, said that this year one of the villages in the east has already been completely cleared of UAVs. Drones bombed the occupiers, and when the Russian Armed Forces tried to strengthen their positions — caused only even greater losses. As a result, those who managed to survive were forced to retreat.

“I see this as the future of conflict,” — he noted.

The official assured that Ukraine will not allow drones to work “completely autonomously” — goals will be confirmed by real people. At the same time, he admitted that technically the “swarm” would be capable of this.

Bornyakov explained that an unmanned vehicle with a machine gun can be programmed to work on soldiers based on their form, but this is not allowed “from an ethical point of view and security reasons”. At the same time, the deputy head of the Ministry of Digital Affairs admitted that he could imagine drones being launched in a clearly defined “kill zone” and working on targets within it.

“I think it makes sense in wartime,” — he added.

Kuprienko informed that the Styx project could be implemented by autumn.