NATO wants thousands of AI drones guarding its borders but theres one thing they wont be allowed to do

Date:
Thu, 20 Aug 2026 05:00:00 +0000

Description:
NATO plans to bolster its eastern defenses with AI assisted drones, but wont give the autonomous technology the power to engage targets without human oversight

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter NATO is planning to fortify the border with Russia and its allies with a network of sensors and drones, with AI assistance The Eastern Flank Deterrence Initiative will track threats
along the NATO borders with Russia and Belarus The strategy mirrors the steps taken by Ukraine to bolster its defenses against Russian aggression NATOs concerns about its border with Russia and Belarus have grown into plans to deploy sensors and drones along 3,500 kilometers, with an AI element to
assist in threat detection and tracking.

Known as the Eastern Flank Deterrence Initiative, the AI will be used to control fleets of drones, but the AIs role in the kill chain will not involve decision-making. Instead, human operators will be given the final say on whether a drone can strike a target. Latest Videos From TechRadar Watch full video here: Millions of drones The plans follow a similar approach in
Ukraine, where the borders with Russia and Belarus are closely observed by AI-managed drones. But the move towards AI looks set to evolve the procedural kill chain into a kill web, where information provided by drones and sensors with AI oversight is provided to a human operator for a decision.

The Eastern Flank Deterrence Initiative (EFDI) is a fully fledged operation, complete with a data backbone, for which US Army Maj. Ben Schiff is the product manager. The EFDI Data Backbone is described as a digital nervous system for the project, which connects not just the sensors and drones but also satellites and the information systems of NATO members. You may like Autonomous AI Russian 'Molniya' drone could be using the Nvidia Jetson Orin platform by exploiting a common COTS loophole Inside the revolutionary Czech AI acoustic shield designed to hunt low-flying drones First UAVs that can stalk and kill Russian Shahed drones autonomously have been battle-tested in the Kharkiv region

Automation of the drones is mainly concerned with the boring jobs, like hovering over target areas to detect incursions. But the drones dont attack unprompted. Instead, this is brought to the human operative for the final decision.

So the humans are deciding what the drone does, but they don't necessarily need to take the action of flying it because we don't have a million pilots, said Schiff . We can't fly a million drones at the same time. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get
all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting
your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. The kill web Traditionally, drone strikes have been overseen by a procedural kill chain, whereby information is assessed by a remote operator ahead of a decision being made to attack a target. The EFDI program is unifying data to progress NATOs approach from a kill chain to kill web. This means the information accumulated on the target from drones but also sensors and satellites, as well as member country information can be quickly passed to operators. But the devices assembling the data need to be able to work together.

Maj. Matt Blubaugh, a spokesperson for US Army Europe and Africa, says "The value of a drone, sensor, or other capability is not determined solely by its individual performance [but] its effectiveness depends on how well it integrates into the broader operational ecosystem."

The model has already been proved in combat, such as taking out an Iranian Shahed drone in Kuwait. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.



======================================================================
Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/nato-wants-thousands-of-ai-drones-guarding-its-b orders-but-theres-one-thing-they-wont-be-allowed-to-do


--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 (Linux/64)
* Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100)