The war in Ukraine, sparked by the unlawful Russian invasion of the country ordered by Vladimir Putin two years ago, has put under the spotlight the growing impact drone fleets can have on the battlefield.
These relatively cheap unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been used by Ukraine both to strike down enemy armoured vehicles on the frontline and to penetrate Russian territory to damage sensitive targets such as oil refineries.
Naval drones have been key too during the past months of war, with the Ukrainian Defence Ministry believing these weapons managed to strike the once powerful Russia’s Black Sea Fleet “at a ratio one to 10 in the context of price”.
Ukraine is managing these military victories while struggling to protect its cities and key targets such as power plants due to a dangerously diminishing number of air defence missiles.
As the US Congress still has to approve the bill providing billions worth of military aid for Kyiv, Express.co.uk is asking its readers whether they think the West should bolster funding for the Ukrainian drone industry.
The AI nature of these weapons consists of an image recognition targeting system allowing for the UAV to reach the target without being fully piloted and making it harder for Russian defence systems to strike them down.
This project is being developed as a “joint venture” alongside members of the £1.2billion scheme, according to Ukraine’s Deputy Defence Minister Kateryna Chernohorenko, and is being backed by more than £200million in Western finance from a drone capability coalition being spearheaded by Britain and Latvia.
In a sign the drones are hugely effective at rendering useless expensive pieces of Russian equipment, almost three-quarters of the losses sustained by Putin’s armoured units last week alone were inflicted by UAVs.
Colonel Ruslan Muzychuk of Ukraine’s National Guard told reporters on April 16 that UAVS were behind the destruction of 70 percent of Russian armoured vehicles over the last seven days.
One of Ukraine’s most feared unmanned vehicles is the so-called Vampire drone, which is equipped with thermal imaging capabilities and can operate also at night.
