Saker Scout UAV

Overview:

The Saker Scout is an unmanned aerial vehicle that was initially developed for agricultural purposes in 2021, and actively deployed on the frontlines in 2023 by the Ukrainian military against Russia. ^[1]https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhambling/2023/10/17/ukraines-ai-drones-seek-and-attack-russian-forces-without-human-oversight/ The Saker Scout is ‘integrated with Ukraine’s Delta intelligence distribution system which fuses data from drones, satellites and other sources to produce a complete map of the battlefield.’ It is reported that the aim of this drone is to ‘enable an extremely fast reconnaissance-decision making-strike process’ which isn’t feasible with human involvement.

Autonomy:

Saker Scout can reportedly function autonomously, without humans in the loop, in environments with ‘radio interference or where jamming prevents direct operator control.’ Furthermore, the system uses machine learning to ‘continuously improve and is updated on demand when there is a requirement to detect a specific new object or vehicle type.’ The Saker Scout can reportedly ‘auto-lock onto a target’, and then crash into that target.^[2]https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/02/technology/ukraine-war-ai-weapons.html

There are reports that ‘the Saker Scout can identify 64 different targets and that it has been used in a fully autonomous attack’.^[3]https://warontherocks.com/2024/03/drones-are-transforming-the-battlefield-in-ukraine-but-in-an-evolutionary-fashion/ However, skepticism has been expressed about the Saker Scout’s autonomous capabilities by experts.^[4]https://breakingdefense.com/2024/02/the-revolution-that-wasnt-how-ai-drones-have-fizzled-in-ukraine-so-far/