AI Drones Are Reshaping the Landscape of Modern Warfare

Drones and military equipment equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) technology are completely changing the face of modern warfare. As inexpensive drones, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, are observed destroying expensive military equipment valued in the billions to tens of billions of dollars, the very method of waging war is being reorganized. AI intervenes in the overall judgment, decision-making, and actions of human commanders during warfare, designating targets and determining the optimal means for their destruction, thereby dramatically shortening operational tempo. An 'asymmetric economic attrition warfare' pattern is solidifying, where low-cost drones worth hundreds of thousands of dollars roam battlefields, destroying high-value weapons worth billions of dollars.

The Iran-Russia conflict is evaluated as a battlefield where AI weapon systems have been applied in real combat. The operation to strike over 1,000 targets within 24 hours on the opening day was a goal physically impossible for human cognitive speeds to achieve, demonstrating an operational tempo unattainable without AI's involvement in the entire process of observation, judgment, decision-making, and action. The United States has integrated sensors and strike assets across all domains—ground, sea, air, space, and cyber—into a single network and unified cloud services to drive AI learning and inference. Israel made a strategic choice to allow a 10% error rate in order to secure overwhelming strike speed. In particular, the combination of LUCAS small drones and the Starlink satellite communication network drew attention; in a scenario where a drone squadron equipped with satellite communication networks approached a target and some were shot down, the remaining drones would autonomously adjust flight paths via AI to strike the target.

Indeed, Iran destroyed an E-3 (valued at 450 billion won) at a Saudi Arabian US Air Force base using a drone costing 30 million won. Ukraine destroyed the radar for Russia's S-400 surface-to-air missile system, worth approximately 10 billion won, with a drone costing 36 million won. Cases have also been reported of FPV (First Person View) suicide drones, costing 400,000 to 600,000 won, striking Russia's latest T-90 tanks, valued at 5.4 billion won. FPV drones are controlled by ground operators who view the aircraft's camera feed in real-time and can be mass-produced using 3D printers. Iran's strategy aimed to erode the opponent's strategic will through economic bleeding rather than military victory.

Military authorities and experts believe that North Korea will focus on building a mass-production system for low-cost drones and developing operational AI weapon systems, learning from the warfare methods of traditional allies like Russia and Iran. North Korea is rushing to prepare measures for the practical application of low-cost drones and AI weapon systems whose effectiveness has been revealed in the current conflict. There is a possibility that they will employ tactics such as swarming dozens of FPV drones in a 'swarm' formation to disrupt the defense networks of South Korean and US forces in Korea.