2024-07-24 15:13:45
The State Duma Defense Committee approved these amendments, which would subject Russian servicemen who violate the ban to disciplinary arrest for up to 10 days.
The proposal drew considerable opposition from Russian military bloggers. Many of them argue that electronic devices play a very important role on the battlefield, despite the risks involved.
“Now the gentlemen deputies (whom we all elected) want to start punishing phones in the war, which literally play one of the decisive roles there, minus the nuances,” said one blogger, expressing his frustration with the possible new rules.
Russian lawmakers have said that electronic devices, including smartphones, could be used by adversaries to gather intelligence and reveal the locations and movements of soldiers. The Russian military has faced challenges in ensuring operational security, and there have been cases of exposure of classified information due to the use of personal devices.
The new disciplinary measures are likely to try to curb this risk by ensuring stricter controls on the use of such devices by military personnel. However, this issue is complicated by the fact that modern warfare uses electronic devices for communication and coordination.
Military experts and analysts note that while the ban is intended to increase security, it also poses practical difficulties. “It is difficult to balance operational security with the need for effective communication and real-time information sharing on the battlefield,” said a defense analyst familiar with the situation, according to the Defense Blog.
Ukrainian defense companies and startups are actively developing the development of drones – to increase the striking impact of equipment used by the Ukrainian Defense Forces to destroy the weapons and manpower of the Russian occupation army. These efforts include both improving existing drone features and integrating new features.
One key area of modernization is the integration of artificial intelligence, with several startups focusing on developing AI systems that would allow operators to control swarms of drones. First of all, this technology is aimed at increasing the effectiveness of drone strikes in suppressing the enemy’s electronic warfare (EW), according to Reuters.
Currently, the Ukrainian army uses various drones with the so-called machine vision technology, which allows to automatically recognize the target, capture it and strike it, without the operator needing to control all the actions manually.
For example, Wild Hornets develops FPV drones with machine vision. Among the foreign projects, it is worth mentioning the Skynode S of the US company Auterion – universal machine vision for drones.
The Reuters article, meanwhile, focuses on the creations of Swarmer, a company that develops software to connect groups of drones into coordinated swarms capable of autonomously carrying out battlefield missions. The operator’s role is limited to confirming the destruction of targets – which is nevertheless important to avoid possible program errors.
The system, called Styx, can operate swarms of unmanned (both reconnaissance and attack) or unmanned ground vehicles. As mentioned, each unit will be able to plan its own route and predict the movement of other squad members.
Serhijus Kuprijenko, CEO of Swarmer, emphasizes that this technology will have a positive impact on ensuring the safety of drone operators. As seen on the battlefields of Ukraine, operators of FPV drones and other unmanned systems are priority targets as various attack drones have inflicted significant damage on the Russian military.
Artificial intelligence technologies will also improve the performance of drones in the presence of electromagnetic interference. Maksimas Makarčiuk, head of the AI department of the Brave1 technology cluster, provides the following statistics: currently, the impact efficiency of FPV drones is about 30-50%, and for novice operators it drops to 10%. Artificial intelligence could potentially increase this efficiency to around 80 percent.
In addition, AI-based systems will provide the ability to coordinate far more drones during an attack than a human operator can. S. Kuprijenko notes that if human pilots are already struggling to conduct operations involving more than five drones, artificial intelligence could process and control hundreds at once, Defense Express writes.
2024-07-24 15:13:45