Russia plans to equip Geran-2 kamikaze drones, called Shaheds in Ukraine, with artificial intelligence to overwhelm enemy air defenses. This was reported by the British newspaper The Guardian in reference to the Ukrainian army.
“According to Ukrainian military sources…efforts are underway to introduce artificial intelligence to attempt to create a “swarm of drones” with which the Shaheeds communicate and coordinate attacks in a way that overwhelms air defenses. However, it is unclear how effective this technology may be.” – write the post.
Russia is constantly modifying unmanned aerial vehicles to make them more effective, the newspaper reports. This month, the Ukrainian military released a video of a Russian drone carrying a thermobaric warhead, which “when detonated creates a cloud of fire with a temperature of approximately 2,000°C and is considered particularly lethal if detonated inside buildings.”
It should be noted that shooting down Shahed-136 (Geranium) drones is also quite problematic. They are relatively cheap, costing several tens of thousands of dollars each; Using Patriot missiles, which cost about $4 million each, shooting them down is not practical. Instead, the Ukrainian Armed Forces often use truck-mounted machine guns to disable them with small arms fire, and are also trying to develop cheap sub-$1,000 FPV drones that can destroy Shahed. However, in the latter case, “the task is complicated by the fact that the turbulent airflow caused by the Shahed in flight significantly affects the piloting of a smaller FPV drone,” the publication emphasizes.
