The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has formally acknowledged its use of swarms of AI-assisted drones during air and missile strikes against Gaza. Israel-based Walla News has reported, citing a company commander of the IDF’s highly secretive “ghost” unit identified only as Major “M.” The Daily describes the unit as “a classified and sophisticated company of the Paratroopers Brigade” which participated in the clashes for the first time.
The commander stated that Artificial Intelligence was used. The attacks were carried out with the swarm technology in the intense 11-day conflict between Tel Aviv and Hamas.
M. said the drone flocks – capable of communicating with one another, pinpointing targets and even directing airstrikes – were deployed over Gaza and used to look out for rocket launch sites and inform Israeli Air Force aircraft or ground-based forces in Israel to attack them.
In one use of artificial intelligence, the Israeli military deployed small flocks of quadcopter drones over the southern Gaza Strip. Each device was monitoring a specific patch of land. According to The Times of Israel, when a rocket or mortar launch was detected, other armed aircraft or ground-based units attacked the source of the fire.
“We conducted more than 30 sorties with the drone swarms, which collected precise intelligence and assisted other drones to carry out attacks on the targets,” M. added.
IDF cooperated with Elbit Systems – a major Israeli defence electronics company and drone maker.
Along with Israel, the United States, China, Russia, the UK, Italy, Turkey and Japan are known to be working on either drone swarm technology.
The military’s use of drones in this way was initially kept classified during the fighting, but has since been permitted to be published in part.
