Auterion to supply Ukraine with tens of thousands of AI drone strike kits

The American-German company Auterion is to supply Ukraine with tens of thousands of AI-enabled drone strike kits to help counter large-scale attacks by Russian UAVs. According to the company’s CEO, Lorenz Mayer, Auterion will deliver 33,000 of these systems to Ukraine by the end of the year under a new contract with the Pentagon.

“By combining artificial intelligence, computer vision and flight control in one stack, we are unlocking unprecedented performance and cost-effectiveness across a variety of airframes,” Mayer wrote.

Auterion’s software is already in use in Ukrainian drones carrying out combat missions against Russian forces. At the same time, Mayer told the Financial Times that the new contract is ten times larger than any of the company’s previous ones.

The company’s strike kits are miniature Skynode computers equipped with embedded software, a camera and a radio module. These kits convert manually piloted drones into autonomous weapon systems capable of resisting electronic interference and tracking moving targets at distances of up to one kilometre.

The contract follows a deal worth nearly $50 million signed with the Pentagon. Mayer said the initiative is part of a broader US security assistance programme for Ukraine. He also expects further agreements to provide Auterion software to European countries.

Mayer described the company’s software as enabling “the next stage in the evolution of warfare”, allowing autonomous drones to operate as part of a coordinated swarm.