Russia increasingly looks toward artificial intelligence (AI) to address deficiencies in its battlefield capabilities and capacities that the invasion of Ukraine has exposed, according to experts. "Russian futurists, Russian technologists, Russian developers are envisioning this slow evolution away from larger human involvement to where humans are going to be involved as little as possible," Samuel Bendett, adjunct senior fellow in the Technology and National Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), told Fox News Digital. "Some of those statements were made prior to Russia's disastrous invasion of Ukraine and Russia's conduct in this war, which is very much manpower intensive… but this is something that the Russian military is keeping sort of on the horizon," he said. Bendett in his paper for CNAS argued that Russia's keenness to adopt AI could lead the country to take greater risks as it seeks to catch up with the West. He relied on public statements, announcements and analysis of Russian-language media to develop his paper, which looks at major developments in robotics and AI spaces and as Russia seeks an "intellectualized" military that makes semiautomated decisions.

Near the Ukrainian city of Avdiivka, a boxy robot zips along the rocky, cracked road. Snaking from side to side, the robot--a four-wheeled machine, around knee height--carries cargo and ammunition for Russian troops. Hovering above the road, tracking the movements of the robot, is a Ukrainian drone. The attack, which happened in early December and was claimed by the Ukrainian military's 110th Mechanized Brigade, is one of a small, but growing, number of incidents where unsophisticated robots have been used against other robots in Russia's war in Ukraine. Aerial drones have been used to surveil or attack ground robots, soldiers have attached weapons to land-based robots, and other small unmanned bots are being fitted with jamming technology to knock drones from the sky.

After Palmer Luckey founded Anduril in 2017, he promised it would be a new kind of defense contractor, inspired by hacker ingenuity and Silicon Valley speed. The company's latest product, a jet-powered, AI-controlled combat drone called Roadrunner, is inspired by the grim reality of modern conflict, especially in Ukraine, where large numbers of cheap, agile suicide drones have proven highly deadly over the past year. "The problem we saw emerging was this very low-cost, very high-quantity, increasingly sophisticated and advanced aerial threat," says Christian Brose, chief strategy officer at Anduril. This kind of aerial threat has come to define the conflict in Ukraine, where Ukrainian and Russian forces are locked in an arms race involving large numbers of cheap drones capable of loitering autonomously before attacking a target by delivering an explosive payload. These systems, which include US-made Switchblades on the Ukrainian side, can evade jamming and ground defenses and may need to be shot down by either a fighter jet or a missile that costs many times more to use.

Deployed on a scale never seen before to carry out both surveillance and strikes, drones ranging from small commercially-available models to larger aircraft have become a defining feature of the Ukraine conflict. Drones have been a part of warfare for years, employed extensively by the United States during the "War on Terror," and they have played important roles in conflicts including in Iraq and in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. But the degree to which they are being used by both sides in Ukraine -- and the benefits they bring, as well as the threats they pose -- highlights the importance for militaries to be ready to employ and to counter drones in future conflicts. "The size and the scale of drone use in Ukraine supersedes all the previous conflicts," said Samuel Bendett, a researcher in uncrewed military systems who is an analyst with the CNA Russia Studies Program. Bendett stressed the "absolutely unprecedented use of commercial-type drones" for both surveillance and combat in Ukraine, and said the war has shown that "small... tactical drones are absolutely essential -- at every unit, every platoon level, every company level."

A Russian "suicide drone" that boasts the ability to identify targets using artificial intelligence has been spotted in images of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Photographs showing what appears to be the KUB-BLA, a type of lethal drone known as a "loitering munition" sold by ZALA Aero, a subsidiary of the Russian arms company Kalashnikov, have appeared on Telegram and Twitter in recent days. The pictures show damaged drones that appear to have either crashed or been shot down. With a wingspan of 1.2 meters, the sleek white drone resembles a small pilotless fighter jet. It is fired from a portable launch, can travel up to 130 kilometers per hour for 30 minutes, and deliberately crashes into a target, detonating a 3-kilo explosive.

"The Russian military seeks to be a leader in weaponizing AI technology," Lt. Gen. Michael Groen, director of the Pentagon's Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, told National Defense. The JAIC -- which has been working to facilitate AI adoption across the Defense Department since 2018 -- recently commissioned a report by CNA, a research organization based in Arlington, Virginia, to examine Russia's developments. The report -- titled "Artificial Intelligence and Autonomy in Russia" -- identified more than 150 AI-enabled military systems in various stages of development, Groen said in an email in June. Key areas of interest include autonomous air, underwater, surface and ground platforms. The nation wants to use AI for electronic warfare, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and strategic decision-making processes as leaders pursue information dominance on the battlefield, Groen said.

Russia is developing an array of autonomous weapons platforms utilizing artificial intelligence as part of an ambitious push supported by high-tech cooperation with neighboring China. The extent to which Russia has prioritized AI in modernizing its military was featured in a report entitled "Artificial Intelligence and Autonomy in Russia," which was published Monday by the CNA nonprofit research and analysis group located in Arlington, Virginia. The report's authors worked closely with the Pentagon's Joint Artificial Intelligence Center to produce what the organization called "the first major piece of US research that articulates contemporary Russia's main initiatives, achievements, and accomplishments in AI and autonomy efforts and places those initiatives within the broader technological landscape in Russia." "Russian military strategists have placed a premium on establishing what they refer to as'information dominance on the battlefield,'" the report stated, "and AI-enhanced technologies promise to take advantage of the data available on the modern battlefield to protect Russia's own forces and deny that advantage to the adversary." While there are significant challenges and some reservations toward ceding critical decision-making capabilities to artificial intelligence and away from human minds, trends clearly signal that Russian efforts to introduce these advanced capabilities are well underway.

For the last several years, Russia has been steadily improving its ground combat robots. Just last year, Kalashnikov, the maker of the famous AK-47 rifle, announced it would build "a range of products based on neural networks," including a "fully automated combat module" that promises to identify and shoot at targets. According to Bendett, Russia delivered a white paper to the UN saying that from Moscow's perspective, it would be "inadmissible" to leave UAS without any human oversight. In other words, Russia always wants a human in the loop and to be the one to push the final button to fire that weapon. Worth noting: "A lot of these are still kind of far-out applications," Bendett said.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Army is investing millions of dollars in experimental exoskeleton technology to make soldiers stronger and more resilient, in what experts say is part of a broader push into advanced gear to equip a new generation of "super-soldiers." The technology is being developed by Lockheed Martin Corp. with a license from Canada-based B-TEMIA, which first developed the exoskeletons to help people with mobility difficulties stemming from medical ailments like multiple sclerosis and severe osteoarthritis. Worn over a pair of pants, the battery-operated exoskeleton uses a suite of sensors, artificial intelligence and other technology to aid natural movements. For the U.S. military, the appeal of such technology is clear: Soldiers now deploy into war zones bogged down by heavy but critical gear like body armor, night-vision goggles and advanced radios. Altogether, that can weigh anywhere from 40 to 64 kilograms (90 to 140 pounds), when the recommended limit is just 23 kg (50 pounds).

The U.S. Army has awarded a $6.9m contract to develop an'Iron Man' exoskeleton to give soldiers superhuman strength and endurance. Called Onyx, the battery-operated exoskeleton uses a suite of sensors, artificial intelligence and other technology to aid natural movements. It is being built by Lockheed Martin, and was originally designed to help people with mobility problems. 'It supports and boosts leg capacity for physically demanding tasks that require lifting or dragging heavy loads, holding tools or equipment, repetitive or continuous kneeling or squatting, crawling, walking long distances, walking with load, walking up or down hills, or carrying loads on stairs,' Lockheed Martin said. 'When human strength is challenged, ONYX makes the difference, reducing muscle fatigue, increasing endurance, and reducing injury.'