Ukraine Embraces US AI-Driven Drones Impervious To EW Jamming

Ukrainian battlefields and airspace are so cluttered with electronic jamming that it is difficult for many drones to get through, especially those dependent on pilots or GPS, which requires a link that can be degraded.

Increasingly, Ukraine is looking for drones with AI capabilities that help them avoid such interference. One US startup is making them. JL

Heather Somerville reports in the Wall Street Journal:

Shield’s V-BAT has AI software, sensors and Nvidia chips on board. That technology enables the drone to maneuver itself, survey battlefields and identify targets without a remote pilot or GPS. It can fly for 12 hours or 600 miles and carry 25 pounds of explosives to drop on targets. Near Dnipro, southeast of Kyiv and close to the front line. It flew more than 60 miles and deep into Russian-controlled territory through airspace so jammed that GPS and most radios wouldn’t work. The drone spotted a Russian surface-to-air missile system and alerted the Ukrainians, who hit it with a rocket

Above a battlefield littered with failed American drones, California startup Shield AI notched an important victory in Ukraine.

The company in August became a rare Western supplier to demonstrate it can withstand the brutal electronic warfare that is downing drones across Ukraine. The country, which has preferred locally made drones, has now requested hundreds of Shield AI systems.

The company’s success is a bright spot for an otherwise anemic American drone industry. U.S. drone makers sent hundreds of drones into Ukraine with the hope of earning the badge of being battle-hardened. Few made the cut. 

The sale of a big squadron of drones to Ukraine would more than double Shield AI’s revenue and potentially position it as one of the few winners in a new generation of military-tech startups. It is a field in which many have struggled to convert developing high-tech weapons into a self-sustaining business. 

Shield AI said it had revenue of $163 million last year, nearly double what it earned in 2022, mostly from contracts with the U.S. and NATO governments.

The Ukrainians asked for more than 200 of the Shield AI drones, which typically cost about $1 million each, though they are cheaper when bought in bulk. Shield AI was started nearly a decade ago by Brandon Tseng, the company’s president and a former Navy SEAL, and his brother, Ryan, the chief executive. Investors have held it out as a promising private-sector partner for modernizing the Pentagon. 

The San Diego-based startup has raised about $800 million at a nearly $3 billion valuation, making it the fourth most valuable venture-backed defense company globally. It trails better-known defense firms including Anduril Industries and SpaceX. 

Taking Off

Shield has focused on building AI software that operates much like the brains of a self-driving car, turning weapons into self-maneuvering machines.

The company has started worming its way into the U.S. defense complex. The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps use the same long-range drone that was tested in Ukraine—the V-BAT, a vertical-takeoff and -landing drone about 9 feet tall. The U.S. Air Force is testing jet fighters that use Shield’s AI software to explore flying uncrewed aircraft. Shield is hoping its success in Ukraine will help it break away from the swarm of struggling drone startups. Scuttled by electronic warfare, most of the U.S. drones brought to Ukraine have flown off course, fallen out of the sky or struggled even to take off. They have often been glitchy, difficult to operate and expensive, Ukrainian officials said.

“The Ukrainians are super skeptical of every company claiming anything, and they have great right to be skeptical,” Tseng said. Ukraine has largely relied on itself, building a national industry of more than 200 drone makers. However, the ever-evolving intensity of electronic warfare has led to the diminishing effectiveness of their tactics to harden the drones against jamming. 

The Ukrainians and the Russians deploy jammers—devices that use radio signals to drown out the transmissions from GPS satellites, disabling the receivers drones rely on.

“You have never seen a threat like this amount of jamming,” said Stacie Pettyjohn, director of the defense program for the Center for a New American Security. 

 

Ukraine loses at least 10,000 drones a month to electronic warfare and is seeking new technologies to keep drones flying. Among them are AI-enabled drones that operate autonomously without radio and GPS, using software and internal maps to maneuver above jammed front lines. 

‘One Answer’

“If you can’t put a pilot in the plane and you can’t control a plane remotely, how is the plane going to fly?” said Dan Gwak, managing partner at firm Point72 Private Investments, a Shield AI investor and board member. “There’s only one answer, and that’s AI.”

Shield’s V-BATs can fill Ukraine’s need for aircraft that can conduct long-range missions unburdened by electronic warfare, Tseng said, as local drones often can’t fly more than 10 or 15 miles from the front lines.

Shield’s V-BAT has AI software, sensors and Nvidia chips on board. That technology enables the drone to maneuver itself, survey battlefields and identify targets without a remote pilot or GPS. It can fly for 12 hours or 600 miles and carry 25 pounds of explosives to drop on targets. At a testing range west of Kyiv, the V-BAT was put through two days of intensive electronic-warfare tests—seven jammers running at full blast to try to down the aircraft. The V-BAT kept flying, according to the Ukrainian testers and a Ukrainian military document.

The V-BAT was later tested during a Ukrainian operation near Dnipro, southeast of Kyiv and close to the front line. It flew more than 60 miles and deep into Russian-controlled territory through airspace so jammed that GPS and most radios wouldn’t work. The drone spotted a Russian surface-to-air missile system and alerted the Ukrainians, who hit it with a rocket, Tseng said. 

“It feels like a good drone for battle,” said a Ukrainian drone pilot who tested the V-BAT and goes by the call sign Kord. “A lot of the drones don’t pass this test because they don’t have the capabilities.” A small number of other American and European defense companies have also had some success weathering electronic warfare in Ukraine. Virginia-based AeroVironment has a Defense Department contract to supply drones to Ukraine and Germany’s Quantum Systems is building drones in Kyiv.

Shield AI joins the exclusive group of Western drone companies that have gotten a request from the Ukrainian government, which prefers its domestic suppliers. 

“Buying from outside is not the priority,” said Oleksandr Kamyshin, an adviser to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The U.S. or NATO would need to pay for the V-BATs. However, with U.S. elections approaching, ongoing debate in Congress about funding for Ukraine and uneven support from Europe, weapons purchases could be delayed or derailed.