Semiautonomous A.I. drones like Bumblebee are being used across Ukraine’s front

Across Ukraine’s roughly 800-mile front, new semiautonomous drones that can chase and strike a locked target with no further human input are now in combat use, according to reporting that includes an on-the-ground example near the occupied village of Borysivka. In that incident, a pilot known as Lipa and his navigator, Bober, used a Bumblebee drone provided by a venture led by Eric Schmidt.

After they “locked in” a building, the pilot released the aircraft; it lost radio contact but continued under its onboard A.I., struck an exterior wall and exploded. Whether Russian soldiers were harmed was unclear, the report said. The Bumblebee is one of several systems fielded amid a fast-feedback, live-fire process involving manufacturers, governments, venture capitalists, frontline units and engineers.

A manufacturer’s pamphlet said Bumblebees had flown more than 1,000 combat sorties by last spring and pilots reported thousands more since. Russian technical intelligence reports that dissected a downed Bumblebee noted high-quality components and warned the technology’s uses would “continue to expand.” Autonomous functions now in use include pilotless takeoff and hovering, geolocation, navigation to attack areas, target recognition, tracking, pursuit and terminal strike; designers are also networking drones toward sequenced attacks and swarms.

Key Topics

World, Bumblebee, Ukraine, Borysivka, Eric Schmidt, Norda Dynamics