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Ukraine War Is Rewriting Warfare With AI, Drones, and Robots, UK Minister Says
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Britain’s Minister for the armed forces, Al Carns, said the war in Ukraine is forcing the UK and its allies to rethink how wars will be fought, with AI-enabled software and robotic systems increasingly shaping outcomes on the battlefield.
The remarks were made during a UK Ministry of Defence briefing on February 23.
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Carns told reporters the war has produced “huge lessons for us within the UK,” describing “this revolution in military affairs” in which uncrewed systems are beginning to dominate at the tactical level.
“One drone now equates to 22 artillery rounds in lethality and accuracy,” he said, pointing to a trend in which cheaper platforms are paired with advanced software to deliver effects that once depended on massed firepower.
He said the battlefield had also demonstrated “long-range strikes with relatively dumb hardware with sophisticated software,” which he called “a new precedent for how we would fight.”
Western officials at the briefing said Ukraine is “developing uncrewed systems and integrating that into a digital sort of frontline that is built on data and AI and pretty sophisticated software,” adding that “the Russians are doing the same.”
One Western official said attention is now shifting beyond aerial drones toward robotic ground systems, arguing that “this year could be the year of the unmanned ground vehicle.”
The official said unmanned ground vehicles were increasingly being used by both sides and predicted they would “absolutely proliferate,” citing potential roles “for logistics,” “for casualty evacuation,” and “ultimately for offensive action.”
“Fast forward 12 months from now,” he continued, “you will have seen the proliferation of UGVs at the tactical level.”
Carns framed the shift as a warning for UK defense planning, saying the side that best absorbs these lessons will have an advantage in any future war.
“Whoever integrates uncrewed systems into the new way of fighting will probably be the most prepared for the next conflict,” he said, adding that it was an area the UK was “really pushing on hard here in defense.”
Earlier, it was reported that Ukraine plans to let allied countries train military AI models using combat data gathered from frontline operations, including extensive drone use.
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