Inside Ukraine's Azov Drone R&D: The Engineer Building AI Weapons 18 km From the Front Line | Alexander Palamarchuk
Eye On A.I.
In this episode of Show: Eye On A.I., Craig Smith interviews Alexander Palamarchuk, an engineer in Ukraine's Azov Brigade R&D unit, operating just 18 kilometers from the front line in Pokrovsk. Palamarchuk provides a firsthand
Key takeaways
- Drone warfare in Ukraine has evolved from basic reconnaissance to AI-driven combat systems within a decade.
- The jamming arms race has led to the development of custom frequency systems across a wide spectrum (100–3,000 MHz) to evade Russian interference.
Main topics
- Drone warfare evolution in Ukraine
- AI-guided navigation and target recognition
Notable quotes
'AI is on the battlefield right now. They are present.'
Conclusion
While AI-powered drones are already deployed on the battlefield, full autonomy remains limited by technical accuracy and
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:00) The US has said that will not develop fully autonomous lethal weapons for ethical reasons. But it seems on the battlefield, every side is trying to get an advantage. In two years, you'll be able to field fully autonomous drones. I mean, that's a frightening world. I would guess that that technology is going to be on the battlefield very soon if it's not there already. Dread zone with Speaker 2 (0:27) AI is on the battlefield right now. They are present. There is some Speaker 1 (0:55) Paradise is the call sign of a man named Alexander. a Ukrainian drone specialist serving with the Azov Corps of the Ukrainian National Guard. Azov began in 2014 as a volunteer battalion. It drew international notoriety for its links to far-right movements and was later incorporated into Ukraine's National Guard, where it has grown into one of the country's most prominent combat formations. Paradise joined in 2023 and now works in an R &D unit developing drone technology near the front. I spoke with him remotely about jamming, autonomous navigation, AI target recognition, and how drones are rapidly reshaping the battlefield and the future of warfare. First of all, I wanted to ask you about the history of Azov when you joined. when Azov started using technology? Speaker 2 (1:59) I joined Azov in 2023. And I work on drones. It's a different kind of drones. If we are talking about Azov, as I know, the first usage of drones in Azov was like in 2017. Speaker 2 (2:24) They were used to reconnaissance firstly and then to strike some bombs. Speaker 1 (2:32) To strike drones as anti-drone warfare? Is that what you mean? They were used Speaker 2 (2:40) to hit different kinds of targets. As a festival, it was used as reconnaissance drones, so you can just be in some kind of drone and use them when you can even see your enemy with your own eyes. But it gives you a good angle to view what is going on on the enemy side. Speaker 1 (3:07) Right. But the war didn't start... The invasion didn't happen until 2022. So in 2017, where were you using this? Speaker 2 (3:19) Actually, it started in 2014 for us. Actually, even on YouTube you can find a video with the Russian regular army in Donetsk region. So it was used with the same enemy from 2014. Speaker 1 (3:38) I see, yeah, in Donetsk. That was started with homemade Speaker 2 (3:42) drones. Then when some kind of DJI fandom survived, guys tried to use them. And as I know, they were glad that it gives good possibility for reconnaissance. Speaker 1 (4:01) Okay. And when you joined, they were still using DGI or home built or when you joined the effort? Speaker 2 (4:13) Even for now we are using some Mavix and Notarize drones for reconnaissance for some kind of bombers with light bombs. Mainly we use them as bomber and now on this here we use them mostly for reconnaissance because for now we have more possibilities and to... take bigger bombs or fly Speaker 2 (4:49) One of the Speaker 1 (5:09) big problems with drones on both sides is jamming. And I've seen all of these different jamming systems, but also systems to evade Russian jamming. I mean, how do you handle that? I know there's the fiber optic line that unspools up to 40 kilometers or something, but I've also seen drones with Starlinks mounted on them. So there's satellite communications, which I understand is unjammable. Can you talk about the jamming issue on both sides? Speaker 2 (5:55) Yeah, I can. I will divide it to three parts, like radio, like fiber optic, and like internet connection. Let's just start with radio. This is a classic drone switch I started to use in 2023. First we use its common frequencies, the same as LTE, for example, or some 2.4 gigahertz. It was regular. Then we meet some jamming from the enemy side. So we are trying to... and use the possibilities which we have had with ELRS and we can move from 700 megahertz up to 1000 megahertz and in this frequency range we're trying to find the possibilities for us to fly over the enemy site and actually until I guess the mid of 2024 it was more than enough then we moved to our will rs maybe you know kind of uh lrs which are made in ukraine is this is a part of this is based on common orders but it's made for uh our needs much more to have a stronger communication with the drone and the ground station which was helpful to fight the jamming. For 2025 year we moved to not regular ELR receivers, transmitters. For now we can use almost from 100 MHz up to 3000 MHz. We are trying to find some frequency ranges. where can we work freely. It mostly depends on where you're trying to fly. Just for example, we couldn't fly to Crimea region on common frequencies, but a guy who stands five kilometers next to us could. freely fly on these frequencies from their point of interest and for good for them. So we moved to, we are trying to resolve our problems and try to find the solution for this by ourselves in the unit. For now, we are using not EORAS for radio communication, but some kind of Ukrainian stuff, our partner stuff. Okay, Speaker 1 (8:59) and then what about internet communication via satellite? Actually, maybe Speaker 2 (9:05) you know some names of drones that use it even from 2022 or 2023. Speaker 2 (9:14) you know like masses Speaker 1 (9:15) or something like that Speaker 2 (9:15) this is common internet connection actually we are Starlink or some satellites like this Speaker 2 (9:27) That's all. Actually, there is nothing, there is no actually secret from this. You can use Mowlink, which can be routed via internet or via some local network or something like this. And you have your control and you have a video from a drone, so it gives you possibilities to fly where the... something else wouldn't fly. We will have actually no problems to fly over some kind of buildings or something like that, even far from ground stage. Speaker 1 (10:13) Is there a possibility to jam the Starlink connection? Speaker 2 (10:18) I guess that is possible. So we know actually what happened in Iran. So it is possible. I haven't seen it on Battleground for a while, but I think that it's possible. Somehow. It is not, this is not