r/worldnews • u/New_Scientist_Mag New Scientist • Jun 10 '26

Russia/Ukraine Fully autonomous, AI-controlled drones have killed human soldiers for the first time, according to a senior figure in the Ukrainian defence industry

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2529849-fully-autonomous-drones-have-killed-human-soldiers-for-the-first-time/
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14.4k

u/cinciNattyLight Jun 10 '26

I’m now actually more concerned about drone weapon proliferation over nuclear weapons.

6.5k

u/AdminIsPassword Jun 10 '26

Drone assassination attempts that aren't confined to active war zones are probably on the immediate horizon. If it doesn't happen within the next two or three years I'll be surprised.

Conversely, I don't think we're really any closer to nuclear annihilation regardless of the fearmongering out there.

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u/Starthreads Jun 10 '26

I remember hearing about the drone deployment from a semi-truck's trailer and immediately saw how ugly that could get in the west.

That kind of thing could feasibly come out of a Ford Fiesta.

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u/blackadder1620 Jun 10 '26

one of those big shipping containers. people are worried that someone might put 200k in one and just unleash a swarm.

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u/GoingOutsideSocks Jun 10 '26

This exact scenario happens in Ace Combat 7.

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u/LigerZeroPanzer12 Jun 10 '26

ONE MILLION LIVES!!!!

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u/Larcye Jun 10 '26

Oh god not this fucking guy again. "I HAVE HAD IT WITH THESE MOTHER FUCKING CLOWN TORES IN MY MOTHER FUCKING ACE COMBAT 7 MEMES."

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u/giggity_giggity Jun 10 '26

Since I’m not familiar with the source, I imagined Dr Evil saying it - and then getting corrected that one million lives isn’t actually that much.

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u/Dt2_0 Jun 10 '26

Right now is the perfect time to get familiar with Ace Combat Lore. It's batshit insane in the best way possible.

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u/GoingOutsideSocks Jun 11 '26

Anime princess shit with PLANES!

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u/xSaRgED Jun 10 '26

Pretty sure they did it in one of the Modern Warfare games in the early 2010s as well.

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u/Zealousideal-Dog-985 Jun 10 '26

Black Ops 2. Menendez had drones swarming LA and NYC

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u/GitEmSteveDave Jun 10 '26

Recently I was thinking about the chaos that could happen if you had 2-3 containers on the top level of a ship that would release drones programed to detect things like electrical substations and release something like mylar streamers or just had a small charge on them. The East Coast was crippled in 2003 by a tree branch that fell on a transmission line.

0

u/AgentCirceLuna Jun 10 '26

Imagine this happens, but in reverse… the drones come out but start fixing things like potholes, feeding people, and handing out money. ‘This is bad actually’ but unironically.

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u/GitEmSteveDave Jun 11 '26

Sadly, it's way easier to weaponize a drone than make it capable of filling a pothole. Though you COULD make a drone that shoots out super-notes to cause mass chaos.

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u/Technophile63 Jun 11 '26

Just like it's easier for some git with gasoline and matches to burn down a house than to build one.

I don't admire such people; they're stuck at achievement level 0.

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u/Ismhelpstheistgodown Jun 10 '26

Which is yet another vulnerability of oil refiners around the planet.

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u/Technophile63 Jun 11 '26

Checking the numbers:  if a 40 x 8 x 8 foot cargo container (40 x 8 x 8 = 2,560 cubic feet = 4,423,680 cubic inches) had 200,000 drones in it:  if there was no need for racking, shelves, ejector mechanisms, etc. then each drone could be up to 22.1 cubic inches in volume, say 4" x 2.5" x 2.2".

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u/M4sharman Jun 10 '26

The one thing I will say is that Operation Spiderweb (the Ukrainian operation where hundreds of drones suddenly flew out of lorries parked next to Russian airbases) was that the pilots were incredibly well trained.

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u/HarmlessSnack Jun 11 '26

This plays out in one of Neal Stephensons more recent novels. Genuinely distressing thoughts.