Time to add a couple more entries to the list of military records from the war in Ukraine. On March 29, video was captured showing what could be the first recorded combat between an armed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and armed unmanned ground vehicle (UGV).
The video, posted to Telegram and analyzed by Army Recognition, documents an encounter south of Avdiivka between two Russian ground drones and Ukrainian FPV aerial drones.
The Russian UGVs appear to be immobilized while Ukrainian FPVs carrying explosive munitions hammer away, eventually destroying the Russian’s robotic devices.
The Russian UGVs appear to be armed with automatic grenade launchers. Army Recognition reported they were AGS-17s, a launcher developed during the Soviet era and known for its firepower.
The analysts at Army Recognition said the historical moment of the first conflict between armed ground and aerial drones showcases the flexibility the technology now brings to the battlefield, and further signifies the shift towards more autonomous forms of combat.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine are now flying FPV drones with auto-targeting capabilities.
In many of the FPV drone videos from Ukraine, the video feed goes to static before impact. That’s because the drone loses line-of-sight connection with its operators or the drone was successfully jammed with electronic countermeasures. Either way, the last part of the attack is more or less guessing where the target will be and hoping for a hit.
Now, video from Ukraine’s 60th and 63rd Mechanized Brigades appears to show an FPV drone still hitting its target long after the video feed dropped out. This indicates that the drone was guided to its final destination with the help of artificial intelligence, taking the human out of the loop.
While much of the rest of the world is still debating how drones and AI should be used in warfare, Ukraine and Russia are creating policy on the fly in real time.
The Ukraine war is the first major armed conflict in Europe in 25 years. Since the war broke out, the use of drones developed dramatically fast. Aerial drones now deal more damage for Ukraine than traditional artillery. Unmanned ground vehicles went from simple munitions mules and mine layers to full-on attack platforms and Ukraine’s Sea Baby drones forced Russia’s Black Sea fleet to flee the Black Sea.
None of this is going unnoticed. The United States and plenty of other militaries are adapting their own techniques and future weapons acquisitions based on the lessons learned in Ukraine.
