Unprecedented boost: Ukraine to receive tens of thousands of AI drone 'strike kits'
Photo: Ukrainian anti-aircraft drones will receive Skynode equipment from Auterion (Getty Images)
Ukraine will receive an unprecedented number of Skynode drone 'strike kits' from the American-German company Auterion. In total, 33,000 kits will be delivered for AI-powered drones, the Financial Times reports.
Skynode drone 'strike kits' are software packages designed primarily to equip interceptor drones. Skynode will help Ukraine counter attacks by Russian-Iranian Shahed kamikaze drones.
The shipment of the 33,000 Skynode kits was confirmed by Lorenz Meier, CEO of Auterion. According to Meier, the kits will be sent to Ukraine by the end of 2025.
The contract for manufacturing the kits will be funded by the Pentagon, amounting to approximately $50 million. This is part of the US security assistance to Ukraine.
At the same time, software developed by Auterion is already being used in some Ukrainian drones. But the scale of the current Skynode order surpasses all previous deliveries.
"Back then, we sent thousands, and now we're sending tens of thousands… it's an unprecedented scale," Meier said.
What is Skynode
Skynode is what Auterion calls a "strike package" that operates exclusively on the company's software. It includes a camera, radio control modules, and some other "gadgets."
Skynode can turn ordinary FPV drones into "AI-based weapon systems." Such drones are resistant to electronic warfare jamming and are capable of tracking a moving target at a distance of up to a kilometer, Meier claims.
Future prospects
The deployment of drones equipped with Skynode demonstrates that the agreement to deepen cooperation in drone production between Ukraine and the US remains relevant. Auterion's director noted that his company "was a pioneer" in working with Kyiv.
"This is essentially a recognition that the combat hardening that took place in Ukraine in the field of drones is relevant. It's a way to support Ukraine, but it's also technology that… NATO countries want to acquire," Meier said.
At the same time, the developer assures that his company does not plan to compete with existing Ukrainian projects. The goal is to contribute what Ukraine currently doesn't have.
"They (Ukraine - ed.) have a fantastic drone industry. We want to contribute what they don't yet have, and what is more focused on software-defined warfare. What we're offering is a leap from what's on the battlefield now - toward target-specific missions and swarm use based on artificial intelligence," the CEO of Auterion noted.
Still, according to Meier, despite the revolutionary nature of AI drone systems, they will not independently choose targets to strike. A human will always make that decision.
Production of interceptor drones in Ukraine
According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine plans to manufacture hundreds of thousands of interceptor drones this year. The goal of the defense industry is to be able to deploy up to 1,000 interceptors per day against Russian Shahed UAVs.
According to Zelenskyy, the cost of scaling up production of interceptor drones for Ukraine is about $6 billion.
For his part, newly appointed Ukrainian Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal stated on July 23 that, as of that date, Ukraine had already signed 4 interceptor drones contracts worth over 3 billion hryvnias. These contracts are for the supply of interceptor drones.
