Latest news with #KaterynaStepanenko
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Inside a worsening threat: Russia's one-way attack drones packed with thermobaric bombs
Russia has been packing thermobaric warheads in its Iranian-designed Shahed drones and homemade variants. Ukrainians on the front lines of efforts to protect civilians told BI the threat is getting worse. One soldier said the warheads are getting bigger, while a first responder said they're being used more frequently. Russia is packing its one-way attack drones with thermobaric warheads, and Ukrainians dealing with this deadly challenge say the threat is getting worse. An air defender says the warheads are getting bigger, while a first responder said they're showing up more frequently. Oleksiy, the deputy commander of a Territorial Defense Forces mobile air defense unit operating near Kyiv, told Business Insider that Russia has been equipping its Shahed-style drones with thermobaric warheads for quite some time now. What's changing, though, is the size of the warhead, among other things. He said that the explosive payload has grown from 40 kilograms (90 pounds) to 90 kilograms (nearly 200 pounds). "Accordingly, the destructive force is much greater," he said. Oleksiy shared that his unit, which operates truck-mounted machine guns, has not yet shot down the larger thermobaric drones, but he said they started to appear in Ukrainian military reports at the end of last year. A thermobaric munition, also known as a vacuum bomb, disperses an aerosol cloud of explosive material and then ignites it, causing a large fireball and a devastating blast wave while sucking out the surrounding oxygen. These destructive and controversial weapons cause high-temperature blasts that can run hotter than 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit and last longer than typical explosions. The intense pressure and heat can destroy fortified buildings and cause severe injuries and death, especially in enclosed spaces. A first responder in Ukraine's State Emergency Services, who asked not to be identified for security reasons, explained to BI that the "thermobaric warheads are much more deadly and destructive" than standard explosives. The first responder said they were not aware of larger warheads, but they shared that Russia has been using the drones with thermobaric payloads more frequently than before. They said these weapons can burn "everything" around them. Oleksiy said the thermobaric munitions can destroy everything from small homes to multi-story buildings. BI could not independently verify all of the details of the two Ukrainian accounts. Russia's defense ministry and its embassy in the US did not respond to requests for comment on the allegations. Russia's military has been accused of deploying thermobaric weapons since the early days of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Kyiv and the UK have specifically called out the use of the TOS-1A, an armored multiple rocket launcher that can fire munitions with thermobaric warheads. Britain's defense ministry previously said that the Russian military used this weapon in its wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya. Kateryna Stepanenko, the Russia deputy team lead at the Institute for the Study of War, a US think tank, said that Moscow began to integrate thermobaric warheads into Shahed drones at scale last summer and fall, enabling these weapons to "inflict more damage on buildings." Stepanenko told BI that Russia used Shaheds with thermobaric warheads in an attack on civilian infrastructure in Kharkiv last week and that Russian sourcing suggests Moscow is also using these bombs against Ukrainian military targets along the front lines. While the use of thermobaric warheads is not new, Russia continues to adapt the ways it delivers these strikes, she said. "The integration of thermobaric warheads onto cheaply made drones may allow Russia to increase the number of strikes that previously would've required a larger and more detectable system, such as TOS-1," Stepanenko said, adding that "the Russians are also trying to make these strikes more precise." Earlier this month, the Ukrainian military said that it carried out a long-range attack on a Russian factory making thermobaric warheads for Shahed drones, possibly reflecting Kyiv's efforts to curb this threat. The assessment comes as Russia has stepped up its attacks with the notorious Shahed-136, an Iranian-designed drone that Moscow now mass-produces in its own factories. Shaheds, also known as loitering munitions because they can linger above a target before attacking it, travel at slower speeds than cruise or ballistic missiles. The drones, however, are much cheaper, allowing Russia to use them for large-scale bombardments. In recent weeks, Russia has staged massive attacks against Ukraine with hundreds of missiles and drones, including Shaheds and decoy systems intended to exhaust Kyiv's limited air defense stockpiles. Just on Tuesday, for instance, Ukraine's air force said Russia attacked with nearly 270 Shahed and decoy drones, adding that two-thirds of the munitions were shot down. Read the original article on Business Insider
Business Insider
16-07-2025
- Politics
- Business Insider
Inside a worsening threat: Russia's one-way-attack drones packed with thermobaric bombs
Russia is packing its deadly one-way attack drones with thermobaric warheads, and Ukrainians dealing with this deadly challenge say the threat is getting worse. An air defender says the warheads are getting bigger, while a first responder said they're showing up more frequently. Oleksiy, the deputy commander of a Territorial Defense Forces mobile air defense unit operating near Kyiv, told Business Insider that Russia has been equipping its Shahed-style drones with thermobaric warheads for quite some time now. What's changing, though, is the size of the warhead, among other things. He said that the explosive payload has grown from 40 kilograms (90 pounds) to 90 kilograms (nearly 200 pounds). "Accordingly, the destructive force is much greater," he said. Oleksiy shared that his unit, which operates truck-mounted machine guns, has not yet shot down the larger thermobaric drones, but he said they started to appear in Ukrainian military reports at the end of last year. A thermobaric munition, also known as a vacuum bomb, disperses an aerosol cloud of explosive material and then ignites it, causing a large fireball and a devastating blast wave while sucking out the surrounding oxygen. These destructive and controversial weapons cause high-temperature blasts that can run hotter than 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit and last longer than typical explosions. The intense pressure and heat can destroy fortified buildings and cause severe injuries and death, especially in enclosed spaces. A first responder in Ukraine's State Emergency Services, who asked not to be identified for security reasons, explained to BI that the "thermobaric warheads are much more deadly and destructive" than standard explosives. The first responder said they were not aware of larger warheads, but they shared that Russia has been using the drones with thermobaric payloads more frequently than before. They said these weapons can burn "everything" around them. Oleksiy said the thermobaric munitions can destroy everything from small homes to multi-story buildings. BI could not independently verify all of the details of the two Ukrainian accounts. Russia's defense ministry and its embassy in the US did not respond to requests for comment on the allegations. Russia's military has been accused of deploying thermobaric weapons since the early days of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Kyiv and the UK have specifically called out the use of the TOS-1A, an armored multiple rocket launcher that can fire munitions with thermobaric warheads. Britain's defense ministry previously said that the Russian military used this weapon in its wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya. Kateryna Stepanenko, the Russia deputy team lead at the Institute for the Study of War, a US think tank, said that Moscow began to integrate thermobaric warheads into Shahed drones at scale last summer and fall, enabling these weapons to "inflict more damage on buildings." Stepanenko told BI that Russia used Shaheds with thermobaric warheads in an attack on civilian infrastructure in Kharkiv last week and that Russian sourcing suggests Moscow is also using these bombs against Ukrainian military targets along the front lines. While the use of thermobaric warheads is not new, Russia continues to adapt the ways it delivers these strikes, she said. "The integration of thermobaric warheads onto cheaply made drones may allow Russia to increase the number of strikes that previously would've required a larger and more detectable system, such as TOS-1," Stepanenko said, adding that "the Russians are also trying to make these strikes more precise." Earlier this month, the Ukrainian military said that it carried out a long-range attack on a Russian factory making thermobaric warheads for Shahed drones, possibly reflecting Kyiv's efforts to curb this threat. The assessment comes as Russia has stepped up its attacks with the notorious Shahed-136, an Iranian-designed drone that Moscow now mass-produces in its own factories. Shaheds, also known as loitering munitions because they can linger above a target before attacking it, travel at slower speeds than cruise or ballistic missiles. The drones, however, are much cheaper, allowing Russia to use them for large-scale bombardments. In recent weeks, Russia has staged massive attacks against Ukraine with hundreds of missiles and drones, including Shaheds and decoy systems intended to exhaust Kyiv's limited air defense stockpiles. Just on Tuesday, for instance, Ukraine's air force said Russia attacked with nearly 270 Shahed and decoy drones, adding that two-thirds of the munitions were shot down.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Yahoo
The AI drone revolution isn't here yet, but Ukraine and Russia are laying the groundwork in battle
Ukraine and Russia are working on implementing artificial intelligence into their drones. But both sides face challenges in mass-deploying that capability, recent research says. There has been some limited use of AI in drones on the battlefield, but it's mostly machine learning. The drone war in Ukraine remains largely human-operated for now. We're seeing glimpses of the future, but we're not there yet. Ukraine and Russia are experimenting with artificial intelligence-enabled drones, but total autonomy and full-scale deployment remain limited in combat, researchers say. AI-enabled autonomy in uncrewed systems has the potential to significantly impact how drones are used on the battlefield, reducing the strain on human operators, bypassing electronic warfare and signal jamming, and speeding up the targeting and decision-making process. It can also analyze data and adapt in real time, which is advantageous in combat. Kateryna Bondar, a fellow in the Center for Strategic and International Studies Wadhwani AI Center, reported in March that autonomy, a system's ability to independently operate in complex environments with limited supervision, isn't "yet present on the battlefield in the war in Ukraine." A new report from Institute for the Study of War expert Kateryna Stepanenko explains that "neither Russia nor Ukraine has leveraged AI/ML drones on the battlefield at scale as of early June 2025," referring to artificial intelligence and machine learning. The report notes that both sides are "increasingly integrating ML capabilities with some limited AI adaptations into new drone variants on the path to developing fully AI/ML-powered drones." Drones that use machine learning, even with some AI, still largely require involvement from an operator. Machine learning could enable the drones to perform pre-programmed tasks, but they lack the autonomy a true AI capability would provide. Ukrainian forces have observed Russia flying drone swarms that rely on visual terrain navigation — which uses onboard cameras and maps instead of vulnerable GPS — and can autonomously detect and select targets without operator input. Late last month, Ukraine said it deployed an AI-enabled "mother drone" that can autonomously send first-person view drones to strike targets. And the Security Service of Ukraine reported that the uncrewed systems used in its Operation Spiderweb attack against Russian aircraft at military airbases earlier this month switched to using AI to complete their mission if they lost signal with the operator. The security service said this was done using AI algorithms and manual operator intervention. Bondar's report in March on drones said that the attack systems equipped with AI are three to four times more likely to hit their target than drones piloted solely by humans. But has the revolution come? One commander of another drone unit said last fall that he expected AI-enabled drones that didn't need a pilot to be on the battlefield within six months. That future is not here just yet. Earlier this year, a front-line Ukrainian drone unit told Business Insider that AI-enabled drones weren't being widely used yet. The war has become a proving ground for cheap drones and emerging technology; however, turning prototypes into a scalable, battlefield-ready AI fleet will require data, chips, and coordination that neither side fully has at the moment. For Russia, Stepanenko wrote, further development of these important combat capabilities will depend on gathering, storing, and managing battlefield data to train the AI for missions, as well as, critically, sorting out how best to identify enemy drones from friendly ones. Ukraine has already been working on the latter with situational awareness systems like Delta and Kropyva, which Stepanenko reported are similar to the command and control systems the US Department of Defense has envisioned. Delta, for example, gives Ukrainian forces across branches and command levels coordinated intelligence from a variety of different systems, including drones, sensors, frontline reconnaissance, and satellites. In attempting to overcome the broader development challenges, though, Russia struggles with the centralization of drone innovation and production under the government in a way that could hinder advancement. Ukraine, on the other hand, is struggling with resources. Ukraine also faces problems with a lack of government coordination, computing power, and sustainment. Amid these challenges, Ukraine's drone developers have nonetheless become a model for the rest of the world. Companies are working closely with front-line forces to meet their needs, effectively creating relatively low-cost systems at scale that push the envelope in new capabilities, such as drone swarm technology. But in the meantime, more testing and investment are needed by both sides in this war before autonomous, AI-enabled systems really make their mark on the battlefield. The anticipated changes they could bring, though, would likely overhaul how drone warfare is fought. Ukraine's Typhoon drone unit told BI that once they became prolific on the battlefield, they'd completely change how operators use drones for reconnaissance and strike missions on enemy personnel, positions, and equipment, as well as against aerial targets. Read the original article on Business Insider
Business Insider
09-06-2025
- Business Insider
The AI drone revolution isn't here yet, but Ukraine and Russia are laying the groundwork in battle
Ukraine and Russia are working on implementing artificial intelligence into their drones. But both sides face challenges in mass-deploying that capability, recent research says. There has been some limited use of AI in drones on the battlefield, but it's mostly machine learning. The drone war in Ukraine remains largely human-operated for now. We're seeing glimpses of the future, but we're not there yet. Ukraine and Russia are experimenting with artificial intelligence-enabled drones, but total autonomy and full-scale deployment remain limited in combat, researchers say. AI-enabled autonomy in uncrewed systems has the potential to significantly impact how drones are used on the battlefield, reducing the strain on human operators, bypassing electronic warfare and signal jamming, and speeding up the targeting and decision-making process. It can also analyze data and adapt in real time, which is advantageous in combat. Not quite autonomous and not being used at scale Kateryna Bondar, a fellow in the Center for Strategic and International Studies Wadhwani AI Center, reported in March that autonomy, a system's ability to independently operate in complex environments with limited supervision, isn't "yet present on the battlefield in the war in Ukraine." A new report from Institute for the Study of War expert Kateryna Stepanenko explains that "neither Russia nor Ukraine has leveraged AI/ML drones on the battlefield at scale as of early June 2025," referring to artificial intelligence and machine learning. The report notes that both sides are "increasingly integrating ML capabilities with some limited AI adaptations into new drone variants on the path to developing fully AI/ML-powered drones." Drones that use machine learning, even with some AI, still largely require involvement from an operator. Machine learning could enable the drones to perform pre-programmed tasks, but they lack the autonomy a true AI capability would provide. Not an AI revolution, at least not yet Ukrainian forces have observed Russia flying drone swarms that rely on visual terrain navigation — which uses onboard cameras and maps instead of vulnerable GPS — and can autonomously detect and select targets without operator input. Late last month, Ukraine said it deployed an AI-enabled "mother drone" that can autonomously send first-person view drones to strike targets. And the Security Service of Ukraine reported that the uncrewed systems used in its Operation Spiderweb attack against Russian aircraft at military airbases earlier this month switched to using AI to complete their mission if they lost signal with the operator. The security service said this was done using AI algorithms and manual operator intervention. Bondar's report in March on drones said that the attack systems equipped with AI are three to four times more likely to hit their target than drones piloted solely by humans. But has the revolution come? One commander of another drone unit said last fall that he expected AI-enabled drones that didn't need a pilot to be on the battlefield within six months. That future is not here just yet. Earlier this year, a front-line Ukrainian drone unit told Business Insider that AI-enabled drones weren't being widely used yet. The war has become a proving ground for cheap drones and emerging technology; however, turning prototypes into a scalable, battlefield-ready AI fleet will require data, chips, and coordination that neither side fully has at the moment. For Russia, Stepanenko wrote, further development of these important combat capabilities will depend on gathering, storing, and managing battlefield data to train the AI for missions, as well as, critically, sorting out how best to identify enemy drones from friendly ones. Ukraine has already been working on the latter with situational awareness systems like Delta and Kropyva, which Stepanenko reported are similar to the command and control systems the US Department of Defense has envisioned. Delta, for example, gives Ukrainian forces across branches and command levels coordinated intelligence from a variety of different systems, including drones, sensors, frontline reconnaissance, and satellites. In attempting to overcome the broader development challenges, though, Russia struggles with the centralization of drone innovation and production under the government in a way that could hinder advancement. Ukraine, on the other hand, is struggling with resources. Ukraine also faces problems with a lack of government coordination, computing power, and sustainment. Amid these challenges, Ukraine's drone developers have nonetheless become a model for the rest of the world. Companies are working closely with front-line forces to meet their needs, effectively creating relatively low-cost systems at scale that push the envelope in new capabilities, such as drone swarm technology. But in the meantime, more testing and investment are needed by both sides in this war before autonomous, AI-enabled systems really make their mark on the battlefield. The anticipated changes they could bring, though, would likely overhaul how drone warfare is fought. Ukraine's Typhoon drone unit told BI that once they became prolific on the battlefield, they'd completely change how operators use drones for reconnaissance and strike missions on enemy personnel, positions, and equipment, as well as against aerial targets.
