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Ukraine Trained AI for Its 'Spiders Web' Airfield Drone Attacks at Aviation Museum
One advantage Ukraine has in its war against Russia’s invasion is having access to the same weapons systems its enemy uses, which helped in its preparations for attacks on Moscow’s strategic bombers.
Ukraine’s ability to smuggle almost 120 first-person view (FPV) drones into the heart of Russia and wreak havoc on Moscow’s strategic bomber fleet – which has continually launched its missiles against civilian targets in Ukraine and is also one leg of the Kremlin’s nuclear triad – has undoubtedly made President Vladimir Putin, along with the rest of the world, sit up and take notice.
On Sunday, June 1, an audacious long-distance operation mounted by Ukraine’s intelligence services attacked at least five airfields, in Russia’s Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ryazan, and Amur regions, where strategic bombers and surveillance aircraft were located. While the numbers of aircraft destroyed and damaged is still being debated – Kyiv has said it could be as many as 40 – this success has more than bloodied the Russian aerospace forces’ nose.
In July, milblogger “Clash Report” reported that Ukraine’s intelligence services had been training artificial intelligence (AI) systems that would enable its drones to recognize enemy equipment, including Soviet-era bombers, using images obtained from military museums. Those who asked “so what?” at the time got their answer on Sunday when the SBU’s “Operation Pavutyna (Spiderweb)” decimated a large number of Moscow’s strategic fleet of aircraft deep inside Russian territory.
As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made clear when speaking about the success of the mission on Sunday evening, it had taken 18 months to prepare. The development of the plan reportedly began some time in 2023, when, according to the Ukrainian news site Antikor, operators from Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate (HUR) made hundreds of images of Russian strategic bombers stored at the Poltava Museum of Heavy Bomber Aviation, from every conceivable angle.
This data was used to identify the most vulnerable areas of the bombers, from which they could create AI algorithms that would allow weapons, in this case FPV drones, to independently recognize and engage targets. As videos captured during Sunday’s attacks attest, the drones didn’t simply crash into their targets but went for the areas where maximum damage was most likely to be caused – weapons pylons carrying cruise missiles and over wing fuel tanks.
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/53784
Ukraine’s ability to smuggle almost 120 first-person view (FPV) drones into the heart of Russia and wreak havoc on Moscow’s strategic bomber fleet – which has continually launched its missiles against civilian targets in Ukraine and is also one leg of the Kremlin’s nuclear triad – has undoubtedly made President Vladimir Putin, along with the rest of the world, sit up and take notice.
On Sunday, June 1, an audacious long-distance operation mounted by Ukraine’s intelligence services attacked at least five airfields, in Russia’s Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ryazan, and Amur regions, where strategic bombers and surveillance aircraft were located. While the numbers of aircraft destroyed and damaged is still being debated – Kyiv has said it could be as many as 40 – this success has more than bloodied the Russian aerospace forces’ nose.
In July, milblogger “Clash Report” reported that Ukraine’s intelligence services had been training artificial intelligence (AI) systems that would enable its drones to recognize enemy equipment, including Soviet-era bombers, using images obtained from military museums. Those who asked “so what?” at the time got their answer on Sunday when the SBU’s “Operation Pavutyna (Spiderweb)” decimated a large number of Moscow’s strategic fleet of aircraft deep inside Russian territory.
As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made clear when speaking about the success of the mission on Sunday evening, it had taken 18 months to prepare. The development of the plan reportedly began some time in 2023, when, according to the Ukrainian news site Antikor, operators from Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate (HUR) made hundreds of images of Russian strategic bombers stored at the Poltava Museum of Heavy Bomber Aviation, from every conceivable angle.
This data was used to identify the most vulnerable areas of the bombers, from which they could create AI algorithms that would allow weapons, in this case FPV drones, to independently recognize and engage targets. As videos captured during Sunday’s attacks attest, the drones didn’t simply crash into their targets but went for the areas where maximum damage was most likely to be caused – weapons pylons carrying cruise missiles and over wing fuel tanks.
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/53784