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On the battlefields of Ukraine, the future of war is quickly becoming its present. Thousands of drones fill the sky. These drones and their operators use artificial intelligence systems to avoid obstacles and identify potential targets, writes Foreign Affairs.
It is noted that AI models also help Ukraine predict where to strike. Thanks to these systems, the Ukrainian military destroys tanks and shoots down planes with devastating efficiency. At the same time, Russian units are under constant surveillance, and their lines of communication, like Ukrainian ones, can be shot down by the enemy.
"Both states are trying to develop even more advanced technologies that can withstand relentless attacks and overcome the enemy's defenses," the article says.
The authors draw an analogy with the conflicts in Myanmar and Sudan, where the rebels and the government use unmanned vehicles and algorithms during the battle.
“In 2020, a Turkish-made autonomous drone used by forces backed by the Libyan government struck retreating combatants in what may have been the first unmanned drone attack. In the same year, the Azerbaijani military used drones of Turkish and Israeli production along with ammunition ... to capture the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh," the newspaper writes.
According to the authors, there is nothing surprising in such a pace of development, because war has always stimulated innovation. At the same time, today's changes are "extremely fast, and they will have a much greater effect."
"Future wars will no longer be about who can muster the most men or field the best planes, ships and tanks. Instead, they will be dominated by increasingly autonomous weapon systems and powerful algorithms," the media predicts.
It is a future for which the United States remains unprepared, it said, as its troops are not fully prepared to fight in an environment in which they rarely experience the element of surprise, and jet aircraft, ships and tanks are not equipped to defend against drone onslaught.
"The military has not yet accepted artificial intelligence. The Pentagon lacks initiatives to address these shortcomings, and its current efforts are moving too slowly. … If the United States is to remain the world's leading power, it will have to change course quickly. The country needs to reform the structure of the armed forces. The U.S. military needs to reform its tactics and leadership development," the article says.
According to the authors, the US needs to buy new types of equipment, better train soldiers to control drones and use AI.
"War is bad, cruel and often too long. It would be an illusion to think that technology will change the human nature of conflict. But the character of the war is rapidly and fundamentally changing. The United States must also change and adapt, and American officials must do so faster than their country's adversaries. Washington will not get it completely right, but it should get it less wrong than its enemies," the publication summarizes.
The latest technologies in the war in Ukraine
Ukraine has created a cheap system for tracking Russian UAVs. The entire system costs about as much as a pair of Patriot air defense missiles.
The concept, called "Heavenly Fortress", was developed by two Ukrainian engineers in a garage, who placed a microphone and a mobile phone on a several-meter pole to listen to the movements of UAVs.
