DRONE CREATES A HIT LIST AND HUNT THE TARGETS WITHOUT THE HUMAN COMMANDS
https://ua.linkedin.com/in/generalklochkov
A new and terrifying chapter in modern warfare may be unfolding in the skies over Ukraine. Senior Ukrainian military officials are issuing stark warnings about what they describe as a next-generation Russian autonomous drone, the (Shahed MS00) Using a high-performance NVIDIA AI chip, the drone is supposedly able to stalk and destroy targets without direct human agency a feature that could have a fundamental impact upon air defence systems in its own right.
This is a fact, not a plot in a Hollywood sci-fi movie. Though, it is a different thing I had “Terminator” as my favourite sci-fi movie when I was growing up and I’m still trying to understand the concepts in that movie.
Once in a while, I think how far into the future can these sci-fi writers seen ahead. I salute their vision.
For the past few years, there has been a lot of talk about Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI is in everything:
Healthcare, Finance and Banking ,Manufacturing, Government and Public Services, Entertainment and Media, Horticulture and Agriculture, Retail and E-commerce
And of course, its foundation where it emerged: The Information Technology
And now, even in warfare.
The conflict researchers tracking the RUSSIAN,UKRAINIAN conflict have labelled the new weapon a “digital predator,” a system that marks a fundamental leap from pre-programmed munitions to autonomous hunters.
“This is not a loitering munition. It is a digital predator,” Major General Klochkov stated in a recent analysis. “It doesn’t carry coordinates, it thinks. It sees, analyses, decides, and strikes without external commands.”
“It identifies targets, selects the highest-value one, adjusts its trajectory, and adapts to changes even in the face of GPS jamming or target moves” Klochkov explained.
According to the researchers unlike the earlier Shahed models, which typically followed pre-set GPS coordinates to a static target, the MS001 operates on a different higher and very advanced cognitive level. A tiny supercomputer known as an NVIDIA Jetson Orin module serves as the drone’s brain, performing on the order of 67 trillion operations per second and fusing signals from onboard sensors instantly.
Analysis of the model has revealed a sophisticated suite of components engineered for autonomous combat in hostile environments.
The system includes:
1. A thermal imager for identifying heat signatures of vehicles and personnel, enabling effective night operations.
2.An enhanced Nasir GPS module with a Controlled Reception Pattern Array (CRPA) which provide a high level of resistance to both jamming and GPS spoofing. This is a typical environment for Ukrainian electronic warfare units.
3. Field-programmable gate array (FPGA) chips, which permit adaptive hardware logic that be reprogrammed to defeat new threats.
4. Radio modem to provide telemetry and, importantly, coordination units in a swarm.
This brought together various technologies to create a weapon that not only survives electronic warfare, but flourishes in it. The MS001 is reportedly built to operate in coordinated groups, share data, reconfiguring flight paths and compensate for the loss of other drones in the swarm along the way. This decentralized and resilient behaviour mimics the instincts of predator packs, creating a nightmare scenario for conventional air defence, particularly C2 systems that are tasked with tracking individual, predictable threats.
Most air defence systems are unprepared for this,” Klochkov warned. “It’s a threat to the entire doctrine of air defence.”
The discovery of the NVIDIA Jetson Orin at the heart of the drone also highlights the persistent challenge of enforcing technology sanctions against Russia. The United States banned the export of such advanced chips to Russia in 2022. However, the open source intelligence assessments suggest that in 2023 alone, over $17 million worth of NVIDIA components found their way into Russia through clandestine grey-market channels via hubs like Hong Kong, Turkey, and China.
This is not an isolated incident. Another recently discovered Russian UAV, dubbed the V2U, was also found to use the same Jetson Orin module. These findings indicate a systematic effort by Russia to operationalise combat AI on a significant scale.
This technological pivot aligns with a broader shift in Russian strategy observed since early 2024. Moscow has increasingly redirected its UAV strikes away from tactical frontline support and toward deep interdiction roles, targeting energy infrastructure, logistics hubs, and other critical civilian and military nodes far behind the lines. The MS001 is the perfect instrument for such a strategy not merely delivering a payload, but delivering systemic disruption.
Anduril Industries an American defence technology company that specializes in autonomous systems are fielding AI-fuelled weapons like lethal drones like the kamikaze drones, and the U.S. Air Force is testing autonomous fighter jets, but Ukrainian leaders are worried they will never be able to deploy that type of technology. The key difference they point out is that Russia is deploying these systems in combat right now and they collect real-world data and improve these systems as fast as Western research and development can get them on the shelf.
“Russia is already field-testing tomorrow’s combat AI. While we hold procurement rounds, they’re integrating tech into a single adaptive system,” Klochkov asserted.
Just like in movies like Terminator and other sci-fi Hollywood films, we have seen how machines fight humans, and how artificial intelligence goes out of control and tries to wipe out humanity. I know we have seen many films where there’s a war between humans and machines.
Right now, many countries in the world are also fighting each other, always trying to pull each other down. They keep creating new science and technology just to beat or destroy one another.
But my question is:
If we are making all these advancements just to kill each other, then do we even need such development and technology?
What if one day, a movie script becomes real, and the human race gets wiped out?
Shouldn’t we be trying to build a better future instead? Or are we just preparing for destruction, and in the end, no humans will be left to even see that future?
Written by Kamran
A Master’s Student At Jain University Bangalore
