\u201cWe tried it. It\u2019s a test,\u201d Ukrainian drone manufacturer Alexander Kokhanovskyy told New Scientist<\/a>. <\/p>\n The successful hunter-killer quadcopter drone reportedly took to the skies two years ago. It was fully autonomous. It had no communications links. It flew 5km to a designated patrol area. There, its on-board artificial intelligence detected and identified two Russian soldiers.<\/p>\n Then it killed them.<\/p>\n Kokhanovskyy, speaking at an embassy event earlier this month, said a human-operated surveillance drone confirmed the AI had detonated above a \u201ccouple\u201d of Russian soldiers beside a truck.<\/p>\n The attack reportedly took place near the cities of Bakhmut and Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine\u2019s Donetsk Oblast.<\/p>\n \u201cWe never implemented it [more widely],\u201d Kokhanovskyy added.<\/p>\n Currently, Ukraine insists a human must be involved in the final \u201ctrigger\u201d phase of any autonomous attack. But it is reportedly considering removing this requirement.<\/p>\n \u201cAI will form a new paradigm of warfare. It\u2019s already actively doing so,\u201d Danylo Tsvok, Ukraine\u2019s Defence Ministry chief of AI operations, told media at the weekend.<\/p>\n He wants quadcopters, wheeled and tracked vehicles and robot dogs integrated as \u201cone single living organism that can operate in a co-ordinated manner\u201d.<\/p>\n What could possibly go wrong?<\/p>\n \u2018Oppenheimer moment\u2019<\/p>\n Ukraine\u2019s \u201cA1\u201d Defence AI Centre was created last year to standardise and unify Ukraine\u2019s autonomous defences into a single system. This is to further accelerate the \u201ckill chain\u201d \u2013 locating, identifying, analysing and acting \u2013 process of combat operations.<\/p>\n \u201cThe system that possesses more data and better understands that data, proposes solutions \u2014 that system will gain the advantage over the other,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThen the question arises: how do we keep up with making decisions \u200bthat autonomous systems propose?\u201d <\/p>\n Humans are already considered the AI kill-chain\u2019s weakest link.<\/p>\n They take seconds to think. Not nanoseconds.<\/p>\n And hesitation can cost lives.<\/p>\n Or save them.<\/p>\n Giving the power of life or death to such software has unsettled British House of Lords peer Baroness Arminka Helic<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cA phrase increasingly heard in defence and arms-control circles is the \u2018Oppenheimer moment\u2019,\u201d Helic told a debate last week.<\/p>\n Once unleashed, can the proliferation of killer robots be contained? Can they be controlled?<\/p>\n \u201cAutonomous weapons may represent a technological threshold comparable in significance with the advent of nuclear weapons,\u201d the conservative peer warns.<\/p>\n \u201cUnlike nuclear weapons, however, autonomous systems are comparatively cheap, scalable and accessible. The barriers to proliferation are low while the potential for misuse is considerable.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Off-the-shelf\u2019 killers<\/p>\n \u201cOn the battlefield I did not see a single Ukrainian soldier. Only drones,\u201d the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) quotes a captured Russian soldier as saying.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw them [Ukrainian soldiers] only when I surrendered. Only drones, and there are lots and lots of them. Guys, don\u2019t come. It\u2019s a drone war.\u201d<\/p>\n It could soon become a clash of terminators.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just launch it and we know everything will be dead \u2013 everything that will be found there in this particular area will be dead,\u201d Kokhanovskyy said, describing the effect of AI-brained hunter-killer quadcopters.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no connection to the drone at all, you cannot see the video, nothing \u2026 Everything it sees will be killed.\u201d<\/p>\n Guided missiles have long been autonomous. They are fired at a human designated target (a building, bunker, ship or aircraft). They fly to the target. They detonate.<\/p>\n Now, AI can choose a target by itself.<\/p>\n \u201cAI significantly enhances specific functions, such as drone footage analysis and target recognition, target tracking, and autonomous navigation, including last-mile navigation and sound and text analysis for intelligence extraction,\u201d CSIS analyst Kateryna Bondar writes in a recent report<\/a>. <\/p>\n Quadcopters are the obvious first step.<\/p>\n Modular components are already being built to repurpose commercial drones into weapons with specific tasks. Now it\u2019s developing bolt-on, modular AI.<\/p>\n \u201cUkraine\u2019s defence industry is developing stand-alone AI-driven software that can be integrated across various platforms to expand battlefield autonomy,\u201d Bondar states.<\/p>\n \u201cIt comes in stand-alone modules, consisting of compact chips with embedded software and sometimes cameras. These modules can be integrated into a range of platforms, from small FPV drones and long-range-strike drones to turrets mounted on unmanned ground vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n March of the machines<\/p>\n The world\u2019s first ever robot-only attack was conducted by Ukraine in 2024. A small unit of co-operating, semi-autonomous drones and quad bike-sized ground vehicles successfully attacked and seized a Russian emplacement. Two of the ground robots got stuck. Despite having humans on \u2018overwatch\u2019.<\/p>\n But Ukraine has learned a lot since then. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n