"Or the enemy will get there first" Ukraine relies on AI-controlled swarms of drones
Hundreds of AI-controlled drones that operate together, communicate with each other and attack targets autonomously: Ukraine's defense industry wants to make this dystopian vision of warfare a reality.
15.05.2026, 20:43
SDA
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- Ukraine is working intensively on the introduction of autonomous, AI-controlled drone swarms.
- With drone swarms, a few Ukrainian operators could simultaneously control dozens or even hundreds of attack drones - and thus offset Russia's numerical superiority.
- "Imagine if the Nazis or the Russians had gotten the atomic bomb first": one expert calls the project the "Manhattan Project" of the 21st century.
Four years after the large-scale Russian invasion, the development of drone swarms is one of the hottest topics in military technology - in a country that sees itself as a global specialist in drone warfare.
"The interest is enormous," says Ukrainian military expert Yuri Fedorenko at a recent conference on drone autonomy held at a secret location in Lviv in western Ukraine.
According to him, contacts often ask him to show "swarms" that are already operational: Groups of drones that can act together and perform tasks without human intervention - a scenario that triggers both enthusiasm and concern.
Compensating for numerical inferiority
"The technology of drone swarms has been talked about for a very long time, and we in the military have been waiting for it for even longer [...] The only question is when it will become a reality," says Volodymyr with the combat name "Colt", Head of Civil-Military Cooperation of the 412th Ukrainian Brigade.
Representatives of the Ukrainian military and defense industry told the AFP news agency that Kiev has made progress in deploying this technology.
However, others emphasize that there is still a long way to go and that drone swarms are only one - albeit spectacular - part of the much more comprehensive development towards autonomous warfare.
With drone swarms, a few Ukrainian operators could simultaneously control dozens or even hundreds of attack drones, overwhelming the enemy and offsetting Russia's numerical advantage.
"The main goal is to save the lives of our soldiers," says Andriy Lebedenko, deputy commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces. "Today we have such projects. They are not yet large-scale, but they are developing [...] A massive deployment is possible in the coming years."
Still in the test phase
Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov is relying on cutting-edge technology to fend off Russian attacks. To this end, the "Defense AI Center A1" was founded to analyze combat experience and drive innovation.
Its director, Danylo Tsvok, says that drone swarms are one of the most important fields of research: "Drone swarms are currently in the test phase [...] There is a lot that we cannot yet reveal."
Swarmer, a company founded in Ukraine, is considered one of the pioneers in the sector. It was listed on the American technology exchange Nasdaq at the beginning of the year. CEO Alex Fink explained that his company has been using swarm drone technology in combat in Ukraine since April 2024.
According to Fink, these systems can deploy several drones autonomously in an area. Afterwards, either human pilots attack targets manually or the operators select the targets while the drones carry out the attacks autonomously.
"Manhattan project"
"We are certainly not yet at the point where we can trust the technology to make strategic or even tactical decisions about the relevance of a target," Fink qualifies. "We don't want our systems to make that decision. People should remain in control."
Skepticism was also palpable among some participants at the conference in Lviv. "Drone swarms are completely overrated [...] because they make a good science fiction story," says Jaroslaw Ajniuk, head of Fourth Law, a company that specializes in the autonomization of drones.
He compares the technology to the development of Microsoft Word. Focusing solely on drone swarms means focusing on just one option instead of looking at the entire development of the sector.
For him, the development of "complete and massively scalable autonomy" of weapons systems is the "Manhattan Project" of the 21st century - alluding to the American program to develop the first atomic bomb.
"Imagine if the Nazis or the Russians had gotten the atomic bomb first. The world would have been radically different. Now imagine if they achieved complete autonomy first," he says.
Moscow has also declared AI and drones to be military priorities. According to a report by military expert Kateryna Bondar from April 2026, the Russian army has "probably" already used "a fully autonomous unmanned system in combat operations".
For Anton Melnyk, co-founder of MITS Capital, a company founded to finance Ukrainian defense, the following applies: either Kiev and its NATO partners succeed in mastering this technology first - "or the enemy will do it first".
