Fully autonomous drones operating without any operator involvement may have killed people on the battlefield for the first time during the war in Ukraine. The test involved artificial intelligence-powered drones that independently detected and engaged targets after launch.
This was reported by New Scientist, citing Ukrainian drone developer Oleksandr Kokhanovskyy.
According to him, the test took place about two years ago. Ten AI-equipped Terminator drones participated in the trial.
“We tried it. It was a test. We never implemented it more widely,” Kokhanovskyy said.
He explained that the quadcopters were programmed to fly independently to a designated section of the front line at a distance of three to five kilometers, after which they switched to target search and interception mode.
“We just launch it and we know everything will be dead — everything that it finds in that particular area will be dead. There is no connection to the drone at all, you cannot see the video, nothing,” the developer said.
After the mission was completed, other operator-controlled drones were sent into the area to assess the results. According to Kokhanovskyy, the targets hit included “a couple of soldiers and one truck.”
He clarified that he was not personally present during the test. According to him, the trial was conducted by one of the Ukrainian military units near Bakhmut and Chasiv Yar during counteroffensive operations.
