Pentagon taps Auterion for massive AI drone boost to Ukraine in $50M deal

Reuters reported the information.

Auterion, a U.S. defense technology firm, has announced Monday it will deliver 33,000 artificial intelligence drone guidance kits to Ukraine under a $50 million contract from the Pentagon. The kits, designed to let manually-piloted strike drones autonomously track and hit targets up to a kilometer away, are part of a broader push to counter advanced signal jamming tactics used by both Russian and Ukrainian forces.

Ukraine, which plans to acquire 4.5 million small First Person View (FPV) drones in 2025, has been searching for ways to make its fleet more resilient against electronic interference. AI-enabled drones that can visually lock onto targets during their final approach are emerging as a key solution.

“We have previously shipped thousands of our AI strike systems to Ukraine, but this new deployment increases our support more than tenfold,” said Auterion CEO Lorenz Meier in a company statement.

A Ukrainian official noted last year that the country already had dozens of AI-enhanced drone guidance systems in operation, underscoring the growing role of artificial intelligence in modern warfare.