Wie sich die Waffen seit dem Einmarsch Russlands in die Ukraine verändert haben – und was als nächstes kommt

If the multitude of advances in arms and tactics that have emerged amid the [carnage](https://inews.co.uk/news/world/ukraine-developing-nuclear-weapons-fact-check-3380640?ico=in-line_link) of the [Ukraine](https://inews.co.uk/topic/ukraine?srsltid=AfmBOooGad6pMj4bNt2tQjHyEC5mOGGs9Ukpl0IWSXc7g8U-CIpCR8w7?ico=in-line_link) war could be melded into a single killing machine, that weapon may well be the SAKER Scout.

The Ukrainian-made drone looks much like any of the swarms of “quadcopter” aircraft now routinely filling the skies over moonscape battlefields from Donetsk to Kursk as the Kremlin this week takes its ruinous invasion of Ukraine into its 1,000^(th) day.

But the Scout is different. Using artificial intelligence algorithms originally perfected by its Kyiv-based manufacturer to sort types of fruit, it is claimed to be capable of recognising dozens of types of [Russian](https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/putins-threat-to-europe-is-growing-this-is-what-the-uk-could-do-about-it-3380087?ico=in-line_link) military equipment, from artillery and personnel carriers to the uniforms and weaponry worn and carried by Moscow’s troops themselves.

Crucially, it is also capable of identifying and launching attacks on those targets without the intervention or supervision of a human operator. According to its inventors, it is capable of being used by Kyiv’s troops to survey battlefields and, where necessary, autonomously destroy Russian equipment or personnel if jamming prevents a Ukrainian operator from doing so.

As one of the designers of the SAKER drone put it in a recent interview with Ukrainian media: “Once we reach the point when we don’t have enough people, the only solution is to substitute them with robots.”

# The age of the drone

Drones, in particular smaller, piloted machines rigged with cannibalised munitions such as rocket-propelled grenade warheads, have come to define the conflict. According to the London-based RUSI think-tank, Ukraine is getting through some 10,000 of these “first-person view” or FPV drones a month. A Ukrainian commander acknowledged recently that medium and short-range drones now account for the majority of casualties on both sides.

Definitive evidence that drones like the SAKER Scout machine – described by its manufacturer as a “drone platform with AI capabilities for autonomous missions” – has been fully deployed as a so-called “killer robot” is hard to obtain. Online videos show the Scout’s onboard targeting system appearing to “lock-on” and destroy a variety of Russian armour but whether or not the target has had prior human approval is unclear.

What is clear, however, is that fully-autonomous technology is increasingly available to Ukrainian commanders (and quite possibly their Russian opponents) should they need it. It is the latest and perhaps most seismic recasting of warfare in a conflict which has acted as a crucible for military innovation from the start – from the use of anti-tank weapons to stymie Vladimir Putin’s original invasion to the development of naval drones to neutralise Russia’s once formidable Black Sea fleet.