The Ukrainian company Wild Hornets, known for its Sting interceptor drones, has revealed details of its work on integrating artificial intelligence into its own products — and openly called the topic of «drone swarms» popular among investors a marketing myth.
The Ukrainian company Wild Hornets, known for its Sting interceptor drones, has revealed details of its work on integrating artificial intelligence into its own products — and openly called the topic of «drone swarms» popular among investors a marketing myth.
Inan interview with DOU, a company representative, speaking on condition of anonymity, spoke sharply about the «drone swarm» technology, which is often mentioned in the context of the future of unmanned warfare. «There are no drone swarms, except at presentations. There are not and never were any on the battlefield in Ukraine. Fortunately, the Russians do not have them either. Therefore, „drone swarms“ are a funny legend and a mechanism for a scam to get money from naive investors,» the company representative said.
He said the technology is potentially possible and both sides of the conflict are moving in that direction, but it won’t take the form of massive coordinated drone swarms like the Chinese showpieces. Instead, the company is focusing its efforts on developing the Hornet Vision drone control ecosystem, a platform that integrates video transmission, remote control, positioning, and AI elements for different types of drones simultaneously.
According to the company’s estimates, integrating AI into a drone costs between $150 and $500, depending on the functionality. The Wild Hornets team is developing its own AI integration into Sting and already has a separate group of engineers dedicated to this task. The company previously collaborated with third-party software developers, a company representative said, but has abandoned this approach. According to him, it is difficult to combine theoretical solutions from third-party teams with practical experience in combat use of a drone. He added that the biggest problem in intercepting a «shaheed» is not shooting down a target, but detecting it, so the focus of AI development is on finding a target, and not just on the final phase of the attack.
