Up to 12 UK companies to gain access to Ukraine's battlefield data for AI drone swarms

Up to 12 U.K. companies will have access to Ukraine's battlefield data for the first time to build new AI models for drone swarms, the U.K. Defense Ministry said on Sept. 25, a month after the U.K. and Ukraine signed an AI-partnership deal.

The data that certain British companies would be able to access includes battlefield imagery and video obtained using both daylight and thermal sensors for AI model development, according to the U.K. Defense Ministry. British companies are now invited to submit proposals on how they envision using the "goldmine of battlefield data," it said, adding that the selection would be made "in just a matter of weeks."

The U.K. would be the first country outside Ukraine to access Avengers AI Labs, which contains real world battlefield data for training AI defense systems. The U.K. Defense Ministry says that autonomous drone swarms are important because, even with limited human involvement, a small group of pilots, whether it be sailors, soldiers, or aircrew, can control a lot of drones simultaneously with precise targeting.

"This world-first access to real battlefield data will allow British companies to continue pushing the frontier of defense innovation, deterring our enemies and making us safer at home as well as further strengthening Ukraine," the press release from the ministry cited U.K. Defense Secretary Wes Streeting as saying.

The statement comes a month after U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham's visit to Kyiv, where he and President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a deal to join forces in developing new military artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.

The first drone war waging in Ukraine has turned many Western defense companies' attention to the country,  seeking battlefield data and using it as a testing ground to develop and improve new products, such as AI systems.

Ukraine has already begun using the dataset to train automatic target detection systems. With training from Avengers AI Labs, the new AI system can detect 70% of all targets in real time, the ministry reported.

A number of U.K. pilot programs have already begun under the new AI partnership, according to London's press statement. One trial project uses Ukrainian data to turn fiber-optic cables into AI-enabled sensors to protect military and civilian infrastructure.

"This is the Prime Minister's AI Taskforce delivering: bringing together Ukraine's hard-won battlefield experience with Britain's best AI companies to develop and deploy capabilities faster," the press release quoted AI Minister Kanishka Narayan as saying.

"It is exactly the kind of practical partnership the Taskforce was set up to drive, supporting our ally Ukraine while strengthening sovereign capability here in Britain."