Ukraine is moving closer to deploying smart swarms of Ruta cruise missiles against Russia

Ukraine may soon gain new capabilities to strike Russian occupiers thanks to coordinated swarms of Ruta cruise missiles guided by combat artificial intelligence. The relevant technologies have been successfully tested by Shield AI and Destinus.

During a series of tests, experts integrated the Hivemind combat AI system onto various types of drones. 

The tests confirmed the drones’ ability to independently carry out missions and adjust their routes without operator intervention, which significantly enhances the effectiveness of combat operations.

In the first phase, which lasted two months, the Hivemind system was integrated into a Hornet drone manufactured by Destinus. During flights, the drone demonstrated its ability to automatically adjust its route depending on the assigned mission.

The second phase involved the creation of a full-fledged reconnaissance-and-strike complex. A V-BAT reconnaissance drone was connected to the Hornet strike drones; it served as a communications relay and transmitted up-to-date target information to the strike platforms.

Experts note that the Hornet Block 2 is capable not only of attacking ground targets but also of serving as aninterceptor, opening up the prospect of creating autonomous drone swarms to combat both ground and air targets.

During the third phase of testing, the system’s full combat deployment cycle was tested. The technology provided:

• autonomous route planning;
• flight planning that takes terrain into account;
• real-time target information updates during flight;
• maneuvers performed without operator intervention.

The company reported that the next phase will involve porting the developed solutions to the Ruta platform, which is used in Ukraine.

“In the next phase, these capabilities will be integrated into Destinus’s Ruta platform in Ukraine, enabling coordinated strike operations between V-BAT and multiple Ruta systems,” the developers noted.

The exact dates for the new tests have not yet been disclosed. At the same time, experts point out that all three stages of integration were successfully completed in just a few months, which significantly brings the emergence of autonomous swarm capabilities for Ukrainian Ruta cruise missiles closer.

Keywords: Ruta, Ruta cruise missiles, Hivemind artificial intelligence, drone swarm, Shield AI, Destinus, Ukrainian weapons, unmanned aerial vehicles, V-BAT, Hornet Block 2.