The American-German company Auterion will transfer 33,000 sets of artificial intelligence for drones to Ukraine as part of a new contract with the Pentagon worth about $50 million. About this reported general director of the company, Lorenz Mayer. Deliveries are expected by the end of this year.
Mayer noted that the scale of the new supply has increased tenfold compared to the previous ones – previously Auterion had already supplied Ukraine with thousands of such systems, and now we are talking about tens of thousands.
Called “Strike Kits,” the kits include a miniature Skynode computer, a camera, and a radio module. They allow an ordinary drone to become an autonomous platform with artificial intelligence, which is capable of independently detecting and tracking moving targets at a distance of up to one kilometer, operating in electronic warfare conditions without losing communication, and operating as part of a swarm.
Auterion software is already used in combat UAVs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. At the same time, the company emphasizes that it does not compete with Ukrainian developers, but complements them with solutions that are not yet available on the local market. This contract is part of the US defense support program, but is not part of the previously announced bilateral agreement on the joint production of drones, which declared Volodymyr Zelenskyi.
According to Auterion, the implementation of their software will allow the creation of a network of drones with AI elements that will coordinate their actions in real time and respond more quickly. At the same time, the selection of targets will continue to remain under the control of the operator.
