The American-German software development company Auterion will deliver tens of thousands of its strike kits for drones with artificial intelligence to Ukraine.
The American-German software development company Auterion will deliver tens of thousands of its strike kits for drones with artificial intelligence to Ukraine.
According to the Financial Times, Auterion CEO Lorenz Mayer, by the end of the year the company will deliver 33,000 of these systems, and this will be the largest delivery of such systems ever — 10 times more than before.
The transfer is part of Auterion’s $50 million Pentagon contract, which is part of the U.S. government’s security assistance to Ukraine. However, Mayer noted that this contract is not part of the Ukraine-U.S. «mega-deal» on drones reported last week.
The delivery will also include Skynode mini-computers with their own software, camera, and radio module, which transform conventional drones into autonomous combat platforms, resistant to jammers and capable of pursuing targets at a distance of up to 1 km.
The company’s software is already used in Ukrainian drones, but the new commitment, Mayer said, is «ten times larger.»
«So we sent thousands, and now we’re sending tens of thousands [of drone equipment — ed.],» he said, adding that the scale was «unprecedented.»
According to Mayer, Auterion’s software will allow «to reach a new level in military affairs» by allowing groups of autonomous drones to work as a swarm and coordinate with each other.
Mayer added that the company «is not trying to compete with what is already in Ukraine.»
«They have a fantastic drone industry. We want to contribute to something they don’t have yet and that is more focused on software warfare,» the company representative noted.
Auterion’s Strike kits are miniature computers known as Skynodes, running the company’s software and equipped with a camera and radio. They can transform manually operated drones into «AI-powered weapon systems» that are unjammable and can track a moving target up to 1 km away.
The commitment comes after Auterion was awarded a Pentagon contract worth about $50 million to supply the systems, which Mayer said is part of the U.S. government’s security assistance to Ukraine.
