US Taps Swiss Firm for Massive AI Drone Shipment to Ukraine

The Pentagon has awarded a $50 million contract to Swiss protection software program agency Auterion to ship 33,000 AI-powered “strike kits” to Ukraine.

The kits convert industrial drones into autonomous weapons and are anticipated to ship by the tip of the yr.

“The strike kits are platform-agnostic, in order that they can be utilized with any drone kind,” an Auterion spokesperson instructed Decrypt.

It comes two months after Ukraine launched a large-scale assault in opposition to Russian targets utilizing industrial drones.

“You are seeing a cat-and-mouse sport, with all sides attempting to innovate in actual time,” Daniel Gerstein, a senior researcher on the RAND Company and former performing Undersecretary for Science and Expertise on the Division of Homeland Safety, instructed Decrypt. “One aspect is creating drones that may strike from lengthy distances. The opposite is constructing countermeasures.”

Gerstein stated that drone warfare has reshaped fashionable fight, even because it enters a brand new tactical part—utilizing AI-guided drones in contested zones.

Drones that AI navigates don’t depend on distant operators, which may be a bonus if the operator’s radio sign is being jammed.



With this know-how, the attacker may “use AI to determine a goal—put it right into a normal neighborhood,” he stated. “Then, as soon as it will get there, determine the goal, strike the goal, and attain the mission.”

In June, Ukraine used modified industrial drone swarms to hit navy targets deep inside Russia, demonstrating the rising risk of those autonomous and more and more lower-cost drones.

“In Operation Spider’s Internet, they positioned vans close to the airfield and launched drones. In keeping with experiences, they used ‘First Particular person View,’ which means operators manually focused particular person plane,” Gerstein stated.

“However with AI, drones might be programmed to hunt out particular methods—like air protection radars, armored autos, or command facilities, by homing in on radio indicators these targets emit,” Gerstein added.

Based in 2024 and headquartered in Zurich and Arlington, Virginia, Auterion develops software program and working methods for autonomous drones and floor robots.

Its strike kits embody the corporate’s Skynode module, a tool concerning the dimension of a bank card, that enables drones to trace and interact shifting targets from as much as a mile away. The corporate claims the tech is immune to digital jamming.

The Skynode S additionally options 4GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage, enabling drones to deal with real-time video processing whereas working remotely.