Олександр КузьменкоWeapon
8 July 2026, 09:37
2026-07-08
“Now a drone is not an iPhone, but rather a Nokia 3310.” Azhnyuk spoke about the race for UAV autonomy and the Ukrainian “Manhattan Project”
Ukrainian IT entrepreneur, founder of defense companies The Fourth Law and Odd Systems Yaroslav Azhnyuk compared the current stage of development of military drones with the era of push-button phones. According to him, the industry is only moving towards the creation of fully autonomous and universal systems, and the development of software and artificial intelligence for drones is the latest «Manhattan Project» in which Ukraine should take the lead.
Ukrainian IT entrepreneur, founder of defense companies The Fourth Law and Odd Systems Yaroslav Azhnyuk compared the current stage of development of military drones with the era of push-button phones. According to him, the industry is only moving towards the creation of fully autonomous and universal systems, and the development of software and artificial intelligence for drones is the latest «Manhattan Project» in which Ukraine should take the lead.
Azhnyuk spoke about this in an interview with the Ukraїner YouTube channel, discussing the automation of unmanned systems and the role of AI in the confrontation with Russia.
The entrepreneur explained that modern drones are still quite simple and functionally separated devices, but this stage will quickly pass. He compared the current technological level of UAVs to the beginning of the era of mobile phones.
«Now a drone is still not the iPhone. It’s a bit like a mobile phone like the Nokia 3310, for those who remember… Or like the old Samsung with buttons, or Blackberry. They are often disposable: different drones perform different tasks — just like we used to have separate phones, MP3 players, and cameras. But we are moving in the direction of several very mass systems that will receive software updates and fundamentally new functions,» Azhnyuk explained.
He pointed out that unlike physical hardware, software scaling occurs instantly. According to the entrepreneur, a software update can dramatically change the situation on the frontline overnight.
It is precisely because of the ability to instantly scale technological advantage that Azhnyuk compares the creation of autonomous drones to the development of nuclear weapons in the middle of the last century — the «Manhattan Project.» However, in his opinion, Ukraine does not need closed science campuses to achieve results. Instead, it needs a healthy ecosystem, funding, and awareness of the importance of technologies at all levels of management.
He also expressed the opinion that Ukraine is currently the absolute world leader in the application of AI algorithms on the battlefield. The founder of the «Fourth Law» and Odd Systems is convinced that no one in the world, not even Israel, uses artificial intelligence in defense operations so actively. At the same time, the automation of systems allows us to more effectively block the enemy’s logistics to Crimea and deliver long-range strikes on the Russian economy.
