Ukraine’s drone campaign is moving into a new phase: cheaper first-person view drones are being fitted with AI systems that can track and strike moving targets after a human operator selects them. The change matters because these drones already play a major role on the battlefield, and the new kits are meant to reduce reliance on manual piloting, radio links, and GPS.
A large upgrade for Shrike drones
In mid-July, the Ukrainian military began receiving Shrike drones made by the Ukrainian company SkyFall with autonomy hardware and software from the US company Auterion. The companies plan to deliver 50,000 drones equipped with Auterion’s Skynode S strike kits in the coming months.
The deal is valued at $100 million and is backed by an officially unnamed European country. Reuters reported that Germany is funding the order, and Lorenz Meier, co-founder and CEO of Auterion, said Auterion’s team based in Munich, Germany, is fulfilling it.
The upgrade is focused on Shrike first-person view (FPV) drones carrying explosive payloads. Ukrainian drone operators have already used $400 Shrike drones to destroy many Russian armored vehicles on the ground and even military helicopters in midair.
With the new system, the operator can fly the drone manually into a battlefield area, designate a target up to half a mile away, and then switch into what Meier described to Ars as "fire-and-forget terminal guidance mode." As long as a radio connection remains available, the operator can abort the strike or choose another target.
How the AI guidance changes the flight
The core shift is that the drone can continue tracking and flying into a target without further human guidance if the connection to the operator is lost. That loss can happen because buildings or terrain block the signal, or because enemy jamming interferes with the same radio frequencies.
Auterion’s software uses only visual information from the Shrike drone’s main onboard camera to home in on targets. That means the drone can track and strike moving targets without relying on GPS, which is important because GPS jamming has become common on modern battlefields.
The system is not described as replacing the human at the target-selection stage. Instead, it shifts the hardest final part of the flight to onboard autonomy after the human operator has selected the target.
The source describes several operational effects that follow from this design:
- The drone can keep pursuing a selected moving target after signal loss.
- The operator can still abort or retarget while connected.
- The system does not need GPS for terminal guidance.
- The onboard camera becomes the key sensor for target tracking.
Cost is central to the strategy
Auterion is aiming its AI capability at cheaper, shorter-range FPV drones rather than only at more expensive mid- or long-range strike drones. The Ukrainian military has mainly relied on human operators to manually guide drones toward targets, except for systems such as the $5,000 AI-powered “Hornet” drones developed by the California-based company Perennial Autonomy founded by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
Those Hornet drones often fly far beyond the frontlines to target Russian oil refineries and energy infrastructure, factories and warehouses, or ships in the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. Auterion’s work, by contrast, is centered on FPV drones that have become common weapons on the frontlines in Ukraine.
The company developed a tightly integrated flight control system and terminal guidance system that runs on a Western-made Arm system-on-a-chip costing just $18. Meier told Ars that Auterion is replacing an existing flight controller with avionics that include a microprocessor unit and onboard AI.
Each SkyFall Shrike drone equipped with this capability costs about $2,000, compared with the $400 Ukrainian drones that rely only on manual piloting, Meier wrote in a blog post. He contrasted that with Western militaries buying precision munitions at six or seven figures per shot, described as 30–60 times this price.
The 50,000-drone order is Auterion’s largest delivery order to date. The company also previously committed to delivering 33,000 drone strike kits to Ukraine in July 2025 with backing from a $50 million Pentagon contract.
Swarm software is the next step
The same strike kits could receive future software updates that allow one human operator to command an autonomous swarm of drones to attack targets. Auterion did not provide a timeframe for when that capability might arrive on these drones.
The company has already demonstrated drone swarming during a live-fire combat exercise at a US military range at Camp Blanding in Florida. In that demonstration, one drone pilot commanded three autonomous strike drones to take out three separate targets.
Auterion’s Nemyx system is designed so drones can work together, prioritize higher-value targets, and adjust as targets are destroyed. Meier explained that this helps prevent multiple drones from being wasted on the same target after an operator directs the swarm toward an objective.
Meier said Auterion’s autonomy also lowers the piloting skill required, whether a person is controlling one drone or a swarm. He told Ars that people could be trained within 60 seconds to operate the drone and the swarm by steering toward the target and selecting it on the screen when close enough.
The human role remains part of the design
The direction of travel points toward more autonomous battlefield systems, but Meier emphasized that Auterion believes a human should remain involved in target selection. That distinction is important: the source describes autonomy in tracking, guidance, reprioritization, and swarm behavior, while still keeping a human operator in the life-or-death decision as long as conditions allow.
Meier also framed Ukraine as a place where battlefield feedback drives fast iteration. After visiting Ukraine eight times and working alongside Ukrainian drone manufacturers, he praised a system that accepts initial battlefield failure and improves products through experience.
The result is a practical model of AI drone deployment: upgrade large numbers of relatively low-cost FPV drones, keep the operator in the target-selection process, and use onboard vision to survive jamming and signal loss. For Ukraine’s drones, the upgrade is not just about one weapon. It is about changing how autonomy fits into everyday battlefield use.