{"id":867266,"date":"2026-08-25T00:26:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T00:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/867266\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T00:26:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T00:26:15","slug":"uk-ukraine-defence-pact-britain-to-share-missile-designs-and-battlefield-data-to-develop-ai-weapons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/867266\/","title":{"rendered":"UK-Ukraine defence pact: Britain to share missile designs and battlefield data to develop AI weapons"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"David<\/p>\n

Updated August 25, 2026 \u2014 9:38am,first published 5:58am<\/p>\n

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London: Britain will develop new defence systems with Ukraine by gaining access to battlefield data that can help train artificial intelligence programs that support future weapons, despite warnings from Russia against the deepening cooperation.<\/p>\n

The pact will also see Britain share confidential missile designs so that Ukrainian companies can make the weapons inside their country in the hope of countering Russian airstrikes, amid new warnings about a shortage of air defence systems.<\/p>\n

\"BritishBritish Prime Minister Andy Burnham, left, with Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Monday.Getty Images<\/p>\n

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that the country faced a \u201cfunding gap\u201d of \u20ac27 billion ($44 billion) and needed help such as bringing forward European Union loans, as he marked the nation\u2019s independence day on Monday.<\/p>\n

Zelensky welcomed leaders including British Prime Minister Andy Burnham to ceremonies in Kyiv at a time of mounting risks for Ukrainian civilians, as the country confronts a shortage of Patriot interceptor missiles<\/a> to counter Russian attacks.<\/p>\n

Burnham promised help on this front by agreeing to give Ukraine the designs for the Storm Shadow missile, a weapon that is launched from a jet fighter to reach a target as much as 250km away.<\/p>\n

The move is a significant show of support for Ukraine at a time when Zelensky is seeking help from US President Donald Trump to share the design of the Patriot systems in the hope they can be manufactured in Ukraine<\/a>, alleviating the missile shortage.<\/p>\n

\"BurnhamBurnham plays the guitar in the mobile recording studio of a military and artistic unit that perform on the front lines, in hospitals and at rehabilitation centres.Getty Images\"BurnhamBurnham is shown the rubble at the site of a strike near the Lukanivska market in Kyiv.Henry Nicholls\/Pool AFP via AP<\/p>\n

Burnham later said he and other European leaders planned to travel to the US next month to lobby Trump to let Ukraine access Patriots. \u201cLeaving [Kyiv] today, I\u2019m quite clear what I need to do in the next few weeks,\u201d Burnham told Bloomberg.<\/p>\n

The Storm Shadow missile plans dominated media coverage of Burnham\u2019s visit to Kyiv \u2013 his first as prime minister \u2013 to join other western leaders at the ceremonies, while a Kremlin spokesman declared that Britain was adding \u201cfuel to the fire\u201d in conflict.<\/p>\n

When reporters asked Burnham about the Kremlin\u2019s comment, he responded: \u201cWho started the fire? That\u2019s the question, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Only after the headlines about the missile deal, however, did the news emerge that Britain would receive battlefield data from a Ukrainian tech centre, known as the Avengers Labs, to develop AI systems that can power drones and autonomous weapons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe platform provides real-world data and insights to train AI models, collected by thousands of daylight cameras and infrared sensors across the battlefield in Ukraine,\u201d the UK government said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose sensors and cameras capture millions of objects, such as tanks, artillery, air defence systems, infantry, and aerial targets, including Shahed drones and reconnaissance UAVs, feeding back data to the Avengers Lab to train new AI models.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Article\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

One project will explore the development of low-power AI chips designed to power future drones, robotics and autonomous systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf successful, the technology could underpin a new generation of intelligent machines capable of operating for longer, responding faster and functioning in environments where conventional systems struggle,\u201d the UK said.<\/p>\n

Developers in Ukraine have been working on AI software to create autonomous drones for some time, telling this masthead<\/a> about their plans in Lviv last year.<\/p>\n

Russian developers are keeping up in the drone arms race, however, and have deployed autonomous drones at targets in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, according to The New York Times<\/a>, which reported this week on Russian drones fitted with AI chips and computer systems from US tech giant Nvidia.<\/p>\n

In an attack on July 6, the newspaper reported, three Ukrainians were killed by a Russian drone that was \u201cself-targeting\u201d and using AI components, in what would be the first documented case of this technology being used against civilians in the war.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Burnham visited a Kyiv shopping centre hit by a Russian strike in May, before being given a guitar by a Ukrainian soldier. The prime minister played the guitar briefly before hearing Ukrainian troops sing an Oasis song.<\/p>\n

While Britain is sharing valuable missile designs, the move is not expected to bolster Ukrainian defences in the near-term because of the challenge of manufacturing the weapons.<\/p>\n

Zelensky is urgently seeking help from Trump to ensure Ukraine can make its own versions of the Patriot interceptors, which are now in short supply after being heavily used to counter Iranian missile and drone attacks in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Arun Dawson, a researcher at the Freeman Air and Space Institute at King\u2019s College London, told the Associated Press that the UK plan would not help Ukraine through the coming northern winter and would probably not have an effect until next year, at the earliest.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Ukraine needs is protection from Russian ballistic missile attacks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Storm Shadow is known as the SCALP when made and deployed in France. The missile design is used by the British, French and Italian air forces.<\/p>\n

The missile would give Ukraine a deeper offensive capability, Dawson told the Associated Press.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can use it to take out the Russian sites from which they are launching these ballistic missiles,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

With AP<\/p>\n

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what\u2019s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"DavidDavid Crowe<\/a> is Europe correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated August 25, 2026 \u2014 9:38am,first published 5:58am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":867267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":["post-867266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}