Science fiction or reality.. Is Russia using artificial intelligence weapons in Ukraine?

The explosive-laden drone, like a dead fish, lay on its stomach on the streets of Kyiv, with its nose smashed and its rear propeller twisted, crashing without exploding its deadly payload, perhaps due to a malfunction, or because it had been shot down early by Ukrainian forces.

A photo of the drone quickly spread on social media, with weapons experts identifying it as a "KUB-BLA" made by "Zala Aero", the drone-making arm of Russian arms maker Kalashnikov, colloquially referred to as a "Kamikaze UAV". It can fly autonomously to a designated area and then circle around it for up to 30 minutes, before detonating itself, just as a suicide bomber would.

killer vultures

The most advanced kamikaze suicide planes belong to a class of weapons known today as automatic weapons, and experts consider them the third revolution in the world of war, after gunpowder and nuclear weapons.

The evolution from landmines to guided missiles was just a precursor to true AI-powered autonomy.

Today's smart weapons search for their targets, decide to engage them, and eliminate them, completely without human intervention.

Many countries have exploited this technology to their advantage, such as China and Russia, and the war in Ukraine was not spared from the brutality of the Russian artificial intelligence.

Smart weapons are the overarching description of the algorithms that help determine where and when to fire a weapon, and are among the most dangerous areas of modern warfare.

Proponents argue that they are a godsend, improving accuracy and eliminating human error, while critics of these weapons - and they are many - see them as a disaster, because stripping war of the human and human factor makes killing an easy, almost costless act.

Although they differ in some details, all fully intelligent weapons share one idea: that AI can dictate shooting decisions better than people.

By training in thousands of battles, then adjusting their parameters to suit a particular conflict, AI can be combined with a conventional weapon, then search for enemy fighters and drop bombs or guns on them, or otherwise kill them without human intervention.

future wars

Russian robot Uran-9

Well, Russia is one of the biggest defense spenders in the world, with its defense spending reaching $62 billion in 2020 according to the World Bank, surpassed only by the United States and China.

For a long time, the three countries have been testing a large number of artificial intelligence units and weapons.

And in 2017, President Vladimir Putin said, “Whoever becomes the leader [in artificial intelligence] will become the ruler of the world.”

Like most modern countries with a militaristic character, Russia has fleets of drones.

The KUB-BLA drone was developed by the Kalashnikov Group, the same company that produces Russia's famous assault rifles.

Russia deployed its drones into combat before its invasion of Ukraine.

Its army is intervening in the Syrian war in defense of the Syrian regime, and the Russian Hmeimim base in the country houses Syrian drone operations, in addition to radar and surveillance equipment.

Moscow has targeted militants in places like Idlib using "suicide drones".

In particular, its KYB-UAVs self-destruct when they hit their target.

The Russian Defense Ministry initially tested the drones in Syria in late December 2021, and plans to expand their use in 2022.

In terms of autonomous weapons, Russia has deployed unmanned ground vehicles to perform tasks ranging from disposing of bombs to shooting down planes, and of course killing.

The autonomous units were part of more large-scale testing late last year, as the commander of the Russian armed forces, General Oleg Salyukov, confirmed that the Uran-9 robotic tank, better known as the Killer Robot, would be accepted into service by Russia's ground forces. During 2022 for combat and reconnaissance purposes, according to the Army.

(1) .

In the oceans, Russia has plans to integrate artificial intelligence into marine vehicles to run without crews.

Last November, the Russian Defense Ministry was reported to be arming naval ships with "suicide drones" to strike ground targets and enemy ships and to assist special forces soldiers performing "covert missions."

In the air, Russia has reportedly been developing AI-guided missiles that can decide to switch targets mid-flight since at least early 2017, (1) to simulate the advanced technology of the popular US Raytheon Block IV Tomahawk cruise missile.

Experts worry that while Moscow appears ready to use other controversial weapons in Ukraine such as cluster bombs, autonomous weapons will not be far behind.

(Russia - and the United States and Ukraine - have not signed the 2008 cluster bomb treaty, which has been approved by more than 100 other countries.)

Russia's smart weapons equipment

It's not just theoretical concerns, the "KUB-BLA" we talked about at the beginning of the article, a type of lethal drone known as "lounger munitions", has already been spotted, with a wingspan of 1.2 meters, and it can travel a distance of up to 130 kilometers per hour for 30 minutes, deliberately hitting the target, releasing an explosive weighing 3 kilograms.

The company "Zala Aero", which first demonstrated the "KUB-BLA" at the Russian air show in 2019, claims in its promotional materials that it is characterized by "intelligent detection and recognition of objects by category and type in real time".

Images of the "KUB-BLA" have not been verified by official sources, but it is known that drones are a relatively new part of the Russian military arsenal.

Its use may also be consistent with Russia's military transformation strategy in the face of an unexpectedly strong Ukrainian resistance, says Samuel Bendet (2), an expert on Russian military affairs at the Center for Defense Research "CNA".

The wreckage of another KUB-BLA loitering munition likely employed by Russian SSO.

The source claims it was shot down by small arms fire, but it is hard to know. https://t.co/gtL2EgKT4m pic.twitter.com/XV31UQBWRO

— Rob Lee (@RALee85) April 19, 2022

Will Russia unleash an AI-powered drone with advanced autonomy in such a chaotic environment?

Given how poorly coordinated the country's overall air strategy appears, the Russian military is now severely testing its capabilities in Ukraine.

If the ground forces with all their complex information can't really understand what's going on on the ground, how can a drone?

Many other military experts question the alleged capabilities of the "KUB-BLA".

But despite these doubts, the issue of artificial intelligence in weapon systems has recently become controversial, as the technology is quickly finding its way into many military systems.

The US military maintains that the real people should make the decisions to kill, but the US also opposes a ban on developing such systems.

(3)

Another 🇷🇺 ZALA KYB crashed in Kyiv, March 22nd pic.twitter.com/gIryf2pXWk

— Abraxas Spa (@AbraxasSpa) March 23, 2022

If both sides incidentally had smart weapons, it could lead to a sci-fi scenario of two robots destroying each other.

No one can say whether this will keep the conflict away from civilians or push it closer to them.

Last year, an agreement to modernize the Conventional Arms Trade Treaty faltered when a group of 10 countries, many of them from South America, wanted to update the treaty to include a complete ban on artificial intelligence.

Well, the drone itself may not do much to change the course of the war in Ukraine, as there is no evidence that Russia is using it on a large scale yet, but its emergence raises concerns about the possibility of artificial intelligence playing a greater role in making deadly decisions in the future.

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