Will only protect digital air defense: how to defeat a new generation of AII with AI

This drone-the product of the Iranian-Russian cooperation-was the carrier of technologies that remained the prerogative of the Laboratories of NATO until recently: built-in artificial intelligence, thermal imaging chamber, high-precision navigation with antispuffing, telemetry channels and group management. It is not a single modernization, but a signal: the world has entered the phase of a new type of Air War.

In this war, drones are no longer a means of charge delivery - they act as autonomous combat platforms. They see, process, decide. And attack without an external team. Shahd ms001 is not just flying. He observes the situation, identifies potential goals, selects the most attractive among them, specifies the trajectory, and only then strikes. If GPS is drowned - it goes to the thermal imager. If the object is maneuvering, the drone adapts the route.

If there are several goals, the algorithm chooses the highest priority. This is not a rocket with coordinates. This is a digital hunter. Most air defense systems are not ready for this, especially at the local level. And that is why the situation does not require "air defense", but rethink the entire air protection strategy. Since the beginning of 2024, Russia has increasingly resorted to attacks not along the front lines, but in cities, energy, logistics, civilian nodes.

ShahED-136 became a key tool for this campaign. Mass, cheap, suitable for night operations. With the advent of MS001, its effectiveness has reached a different level. It's not just about expanding the arsenal. It is a change in logic: strokes are made series, according to a template, on infrastructure, which has a strategic, not tactical weight. Now ShahED is able to choose the route on a roadway bypassing, adapt to the situation and continue the operation even in difficult conditions of the EW.

The analysis of the whipped apparatus revealed that this means that we are not just a barrel ammunition, but a compact digital platform with an autonomous target and the ability to navigate independently in uncertainty. A separate feature of MS001 is the presence of logic for swarm use. Ukrainian intelligence recorded the use of ShahED in a group structure, where one performs a scout function (with a camera and modem), others-strikers who receive a targeted indication.

This makes it possible to strike objects that should not be previously known during launch. In this format, one drone "leads", the rest "perform". This is the network principle of application, and it completely changes the idea of ​​the pace and accuracy of beats. The SHahd-136 MS001 design is more than Iran and Russia. Part of the control algorithms, communication module architecture and even antenna blocks are of Chinese origin.

It is China, which prepares A2/AD architecture for Taiwan surgery that already exports technologies that enrich Russian platforms. In addition, the main electronics ShahED-A are components from the USA, Europe, South Korea, obtained through bypass chains. Nvidia, Analog Devices, Stmicroelectronics, Xilinx - their products are in every third drone. This is a question of sanctions, export supply control and a global measure. Shahd-136 MS001 is an air unit acting as a smart agent.

He has an algorithm for assessing the situation, the ability to change behavior, the ability to go beyond the initial scenario. No air defense battery that works on the principle of "detect - destroy" is able to have time if the system has no holistic integration with data, analytics and speed.

That is why the air protection model should be built on the information and turnover, in which each sensor (radar, thermal imager, acoustic detector) is an element of a single system, and each reaction-the result of synchronous analysis with the participation of AI. This is not futurism. This is the answer to the present. We will not create digital air defense without: ShahED-136 MS001 is a litmus paper. He showed that the enemy was already in the future while we discuss the tenders.

He attacks not what he has, but that he was able to collect in one adaptive module. And he proved: the value does not determine the power. Defines integration. The question now is: where is our answer? Where, Bld, our answer to this? Where are our lines of drones from the AI, where is 5 million drones a year in "state order"? Did they get lost in 1 billion trees? We are not only fighting with Russia. We are fighting with inertia.