Page 17 - The Indian EYE 032522

OpINION MARCH 25, 2022 | The Indian Eye 17

ence with the Ministry of Education hodets-RU (“Sirius”) and Forpost
and Science and the Russian Acad- (“Outpost”) drones from Israel.
emy of Sciences, which led to the Ukraine, on the other hand, is using
10-point statement that specifically a Turkish-made TB2 drone, which
focuses on innovative and AI-driven works autonomously and can per-
solutions. In 2019, another initiative form laser-guided artillery strikes.
was led by the Russian government With the proliferation of AI, the
for National Strategy for the De- weapons of war are becoming more
velopment of AI with AI Federal technologically equipped, which is
Project inclined towards the private changing the battlefield scenarios,
sector. The AI Roadmap drafted by as seen in Russia’s current incur-
SberBank estimated an investment sion in Ukraine. As Russia is being
of US$ 5.13 billion, which was later suspected of having used AI-based
revised to US$ 3.83 billion. cyber-attacks on Ukraine, it is also
In 2021, the Russian President believed that the US and other
again stated that 2021 will be the year NATO members are also pursuing
of Science and Technology in Russia similar tactics against Russia. How-
with a breakthrough in technology, ever, there is no denying that Rus-
economy and social progress. In the sia’s AI-enabled military capabilities
modernization of Russian armed India External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar meets Iran President Ebrahim Raisi and handed and autonomy have made its forces
forces, AI has been highlighted as a over a personal message from Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Tehran last year (ANI Photo) more lethal.
priority for integrating autonomous The anonymity with the use of
and robotic weapon systems. For AI-enabled asymmetric warfare like
this, the National Defense Manage- already used to deploy such systems. gets through the automated signal cyber warfare and information war-
ment Centre has been established to Some of the world’s biggest AI collection and AI-enabled signals fare allows countries to flex their
set up coordination between various companies have become the bat- intelligence (SIGINT). asymmetric power without any retri-
military units. tlefield for information warfare The Joint All-Command & bution. Furthermore, this makes the
With the recent announcement amidst this conflict, with the data Control (JADC2) has become to- impact more offensive by destabiliz-
by Xi Jinping on China–Russia “no and services becoming vital links day’s buzzword across militaries. ing the country without any restric-
limits partnership” and deciding to to it. Some companies like Apple Russia calls it an Automated Con- tions of geography, causing direct,
back each other on Ukraine and and Dell have ceased their sales in trol System (ACS) that connects all material and economic impact on
Taiwan conflicts, it is evident that Russia and have removed apps like the domains like air, sea, land, cyber the opponent.
these two nations will have more RT News and Sputnik News from and space together, collects and dis- AI will play a significant role in
collaborations in future. Russia also the app store. To mitigate the dis- tribute the data from sensors shoot- developing advanced autonomous
suggested China for partnership in information campaigns, companies ers into one information space. systems, and the countries with in-
garnering and building Russia’s AI like Meta, Twitter and Telegram are Russia is exuberantly working digenous development of such sys-
readiness in the wake of Ukraine either limiting or suspending the on using AI and autonomous sys- tems will lead the future battlefield,
crisis. Russia’s AI programme func- promotional posts for the safety of tems to make its forces more lethal. as the inconspicuous use of technol-
tions differently when compared to the people in the conflict zone. Tesla It is believed that Russia is using ogy will be the first step to disable
other countries as it is run by the and SpaceX have opened the Star- AI-enabled systems in the Ukraine any country’s infrastructure in case
state-owned firms and not by the link for Ukraine at the request of conflict to gather surveillance foot- of such conflicts.
government. Russia’s defense con- the Vice Prime Minister, Mykhailo age from drones and analyses the Hence, it is essential to reiter-
glomerate Rostec is working dedi- Fedorov. Elon Musk has also made battlefield data. There is also a pos- ate that this technology’s range and
catedly on building AI capabilities. superchargers free to use in Poland, sibility that Russia might receive potential use in defense applications
The Russian government is short- Slovakia and Hungary to help peo- advanced AI-enabled weapons from like cyber-attacks, information war-
handed due to its lack in a strong ple escape from the war zone. China in exchange for informa- fare, disseminating and detection
defense industrial base. Currently, Russia is also engaging in three- tion on the efficient integration of of disinformation, deep fakes and
there are more than 150 AI-enabled front information warfare against drones in combat operations. Russia autonomous weapon systems, is
military systems at various stages of Ukraine which includes: has battle-tested expertise on the critical, challenging and ambiguous,
development in the areas of auton- • Disinformation: Russia has eman- use of drones for combat operations which in future will be the default
omous air, underwater, surface and cipated one of the most extensive in Syria, which China currently does blueprint of the war strategy.
ground platforms. influence operations with AI- not have.
AI plays a vital role in infor- based targeted adversarial tactics Russia has Kamikaze drones Dr Sanur Sharma is Associate Fellow
mation warfare, which is evident in through automatic generation of called Lantset, which has autono- at Manohar Parrikar Institute for
the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, as social media accounts and uses mous capabilities to attack tanks or Defense Studies and Analyses.
it helps in analysing the vast amount them as disinformation signal troop concentrations by loitering
of open-source intelligence from generators. the pre-selected target and crashing Views expressed are of the author and
videos to Telegram posts on troops • Cyberwarfare: Russia has em- into it with the warhead. Russia has do not necessarily reflect the views of
and attacks, to fact check the events ployed advanced cyberwarfare reportedly used these in Syria, and it the Manohar Parrrikar IDSA or of the
and claims made by both sides and operations that use AI to impede is said to have been used in Ukraine Government of India.
can be further used for future war Ukrainian weapon systems and as well. Some other uncrewed sys-
crime prosecutions. One issue with shut down critical infrastructures. tems that Russia has include the This is the abridged version of the
the use of such technology is deep • Kinetic warfare: Russia’s incur- new version of S-70 Okhotnik which article which appeared first in the
fakes that use AI techniques to cre- sion into Ukraine with 4x military is a stealth combat drone that has Comment section of the website (www.
ate realistic videos to launch dis- assets have been attributed with the capability to hit the target from idsa.in) of Manohar Parrikar Institute
information campaigns. However, kinetic offensives that guide pre- an altitude with the unguided bomb. for Defense Studies and Analyses, New
ML can detect such fake videos, and cision weaponry and specialized Russia has also procured preda-
various social media platforms are army units towards high-value tar- tor-type stealth aircraft called Inok- Delhi on March 17, 2022

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