Automated turrets with AI are being installed in Kyiv to protect against jet drones

Author, News Department

Place of work, BBC Ukrainian Service

Published 2 minutes ago

Reading time: 4 min

From attacks by rocket bombers, which the Russian army has been using to destroy the infrastructure of Kyiv for more than a month, the Ukrainian capital must now be protected by robotic fire installations. Ukraine is already using this innovative technology at the front. How does it work?

(This is a translation of the text from the BBC Ukrainian Service. The original in Ukrainian can be read here.)

The first experience of using turrets in Kyiv was reported on Monday by the press secretary of the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Yuriy Ignat. A day earlier, President Vladimir Zelensky also spoke about this.

According to the president, more than 12 such installations have already been installed in Kyiv, and another eight automatic combat modules for 50-caliber machine guns are being installed in the Kyiv region.

As Yuri Ignat reported, in the capital, turrets are placed primarily on bridges.

In recent days, several Russian attacks on Kyiv's South and North bridges, which connect the right and left banks of the Dnieper, have caused damage and effectively stopped traffic in the city.

Ignat reported on October 5 that with the help of new installations it was already possible to shoot down Geran-5 jet drones.

“There are already cases of Geranium-5 jets being shot down, I was skeptical about whether this was possible, but the use of innovative technologies, AI, has eliminated human error, technical calculations work, machine vision is used,” Ignat said.

Since the turrets operate automatically, the military emphasizes that you should not be near windows during air raids.

The main problem with jet drones is their speed, which is several times higher than the speed of conventional suicide bombers.

Zelensky stated that Ukrainian air defense now intercepts conventional suicide bombers in about 85–92% of cases, while jet drones only intercept half or a little more.

So how can turrets help?

How it works

A turret, from the French for “little tower,” is a mount for mounting a machine gun or cannon of various calibers. It rotates in horizontal and vertical planes and allows you to aim the weapon at the target.

Turrets equipped with artificial intelligence independently detect and calculate the trajectory of an enemy drone.

The entire mechanical part - turning the installation, aiming at the target - occurs automatically. The operator can only confirm the defeat with one click of a button.

This innovative solution appeared in service with Ukrainian forces back in May of this year.

The AI ​​turret was developed by Ukrainian manufacturers together with the Brave1 defense innovation cluster and the military. The K-2 military units, which actively use drones and new military technologies, were the first to test the turret in combat.

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As the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reported then, this technology began to be used to protect the military from drones in front-line territories and the battle line.

Turrets primarily made it possible to protect against drones that are invulnerable to electronic warfare and operate via fiber optics.

But they are also effective against fast and maneuverable targets.

Automatic decision-making and quick calculation of parameters allow you to quickly react and open fire in the direction of air targets, explained the specialized publication “Military”.

In Ukraine, various types of automated turrets are used, such as Sky Sentinel or another Ukrainian development, Khizhak.

“Hizhak” can rotate 360 ​​degrees and raise the barrel of the weapon up 75 degrees.

The range of action of robotic turrets is small, since the main weapon of destruction remains the machine gun.

Thus, during testing, the Khizhak turret hit an FPV drone at a distance of up to 220 meters, and recognized it at a distance of up to 250 meters.

It is not reported what type of turrets are currently being installed in Kyiv.

Authorities urge residents not to publish photos and videos of anti-aircraft installations, as well as the consequences of shelling. After all, the Russian military monitors and analyzes them in this way in order to correct repeated strikes.

Why is robotization of air defense systems needed?

Ilya Abishev*, military observer for the BBC Russian Service:

The faster the target moves, the more difficult it is to hit it. Mobile fire teams have a good track record against gasoline-powered drones, but even they rarely manage to shoot everything down. And shooting down jet drones, whose speed is three times higher than conventional ones, is already at the limit of human capabilities.

The human shooter must be in the right place at the right moment. Humans have a longer reaction time than automation. To err is human - even an experienced sniper can miss for no apparent reason.

Controlling counter-drones to counter high-speed targets also requires automation. The picture that the pilot of an air defense drone receives comes to him with a delay, and so does his command to the drone - the signal takes time to process and pass through satellites and base stations; again, human reaction time must be taken into account.