THE USE OF DRONES AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN UKRAINE’S MILITARY STRATEGY

Abstract

The article examines the technical aspects of the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) to perform reconnaissance, strike operations, logistics, and electronic warfare (EW) tasks.The purpose of the article is to analyze the technical characteristics, functionality, and software of Ukrainian drones, to assess the effectiveness of their use without integrated Artificial Intelligent (AI), and to determine the prospects for partial automation to increase autonomy in real-world combat. The results show that despite the effectiveness of drones in basic tasks, their work is complicated by communication disruptions, a 20–30 % decrease in autonomy due to climatic factors, and limited software flexibility. Reconnaissance drones provide surveillance, strike drones provide targeted destruction, logistics drones provide rapid delivery of goods, and electronic warfare drones block enemy communication channels. However, the software does not provide for autonomous navigation, route correction, or adaptation to changes in the combat environment. Simple software does not allow drones to function without constant operator control, which reduces their effectiveness in areas of active electronic warfare. The advantages and limitations of key models of drones Leleka-100, Racoon, Bukovel, which form the basis of the tactical arsenal, are considered. The author analyzes the capabilities of their software and hardware platforms in the face of active influence of enemy electronic warfare systems and difficult climatic conditions. The emphasis is placed on the practical barriers to automation related to power consumption, weight of drones, and insufficient computing power, as well as on ways to gradually introduce elements of AI through modular solutions.The effectiveness of the UAVs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine largely depends on improving their technical characteristics and software. Promising areas include the introduction of inertial navigation systems, hybrid power sources, adaptive software for electronic warfare drones, and local data processing using simplified AI algorithms.The gradual introduction of such solutions will increase the autonomy and reliability of drones without a significant increase in the resource base.