The battlefield in Ukraine could soon have more robots than human soldiers: that is the surprising claim of a Ukrainian-British military company.
The BBC visited UFORCE’s London facilities, which are discreet and unmarked, a move the company says is intended to protect it from possible Russian sabotage.
I wanted to know more about this company because of its participation in what Ukraine calls an unprecedented military operation: the conquest of enemy territory using only robots and drones.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made this claim in a video last month highlighting Ukraine’s newly developed robotic weapons.
Both sides have employed unmanned aerial and ground systems during the conflict, and analysts say the war dramatically accelerated the development of military technology.
It also intensified debate about the future of war and its implications for soldiers, both robots and humans.
150,000 combat missions
Zelensky has been willing to release what he says was a first in the history of the war, but the Ukrainian military refuses to provide details of the operation.
Similarly, a UFORCE representative declined to comment on the robotic battle described in Zelensky’s video, but stated that UFORCE air, land and sea drones are used in combat operations.
“I can’t go into detail about the operation or how UFORCE was involved, but we have carried out more than 150,000 successful combat missions since the large-scale Russian invasion in 2022,” said Rhiannon Padley, the company’s director of strategic alliances in the United Kingdom.
What is clear is that robotic weapons systems are big business.
The company expanded rapidly and recently achieved “unicorn” status, meaning a privately held company valued at more than $1 billion.
Zelensky’s video showed Ukrainian-made drones and weapons.
He added that the phenomenon of robots fighting robots will likely become more common, even leading to unmanned systems outnumbering human soldiers.
Russia also deploys robots designed to launch explosives against Ukrainian positions. Analysts say advances in this technology will likely redefine the way wars will be fought in the future.
“I really think Ukraine is a great source of learning for the future of national defense and weapons,” said Melanie Sisson, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
“It’s an impressive case study in how necessity drives invention.”
UFORCE is part of a growing group of so-called “Neo-Prime” defense companies, posing a challenge to established firms such as BAE Systems, Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Another of them is Anduril, an American defense technology company that carried out its first test flight of a pilotless fighter aircraft in February.
Although most drones are still operated remotely by humans, companies like Anduril are increasingly incorporating man-made intelligence into weapons systems.
UFORCE’s ground drones use software designed to assist in target identification, while Anduril claims that some of its systems can autonomously complete the final phase of an attack.
Embrace man-made intelligence
The US government publicly urged its military to aggressively adopt manmade intelligence.
In January, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the country must become an “AI-focused fighting force.”
China is also increasing its use of AI-based military systems, according to a US Department of Defense assessment published last year.
Analysts say it may be difficult to avoid a future in which robots face each other directly on the battlefield.
“Ukrainian and Russian drones are already fighting each other,” said Jacob Parakilas of RAND Europe, a think tank.
“It seems extremely likely, if not inevitable, that this will extend to land and sea warfare.”
However, human rights groups warn that greater autonomy in weapons systems raises serious liability concerns.
“Armies adopt AI to speed up processes such as target identification. But delegating life-and-death decisions to machines poses profound ethical and human rights risks,” said Patrick Wilcken of Amnesty International.
Weapons makers argue that keeping “a human in the loop” addresses those concerns, insisting that decisions to use force still rest within the military.
“Humans need rest and food, and in combat conditions those needs are not always met,” said Dr. Rich Drake, general director of Anduril Industries in the United Kingdom.
“Computing allows us to reduce errors along what we call the attack chain.”
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