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submitted 2 days ago by morysal@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

The average life expectancy for a Russian soldier in Ukraine is between 20-30 minutes, CIA director John Ratcliffe said. Speaking at a defense summit in Pennsylvania, he attributed the deadly conditions for Vladimir Putin's forces to Ukraine's combat drones equipped with AI. "What I would say is, our intelligence is consistent with some of the open-source reporting you may have seen in Ukraine," Ratcliffe said.  "So the average life expectancy of a Russian recruit, right now, arriving on the battlefield in Ukraine, is estimated to be between 20 and 30 minutes." "And that's because AI-powered drones have gotten to be such specialized, low-cost killing machines. And it's why we're now four and a half years into that conflict," Ratcliffe added. Ukraine said this month that Russia has lost about 1.4 million soldiers since the beginning of its full-scale invasion, with over 1,000 of the Kremlin's troops killed or wounded almost every day.  In May, Ukraine's defense ministry said it was killing roughly 200 Russian soldiers for every kilometer of territory that Moscow claimed.

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[-] Regrettable_incident@lemmy.world 29 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

This is great for Ukraine, but not so hot for the future of warfare. We may have to get good at building EMPs for when the urban pacification terminators come.

[-] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 7 points 20 hours ago

but not so hot for the future of warfare.

Maybe the future of warfare is to figure out a better way for people to settle their differences.

That would, of course, mean we would first have to figure out how to prevent narcissistic megalomaniacs from being in positions of power.

[-] skisnow@lemmy.ca 19 points 1 day ago

yeah I can't help but read all this as very bad news indeed in the longer term. There's nothing stopping Russia, North Korea, or indeed any random manchild billionaire deploying this tech within the coming months or years and deciding who they think should die. It's not like nukes which are difficult to get material for and difficult to build. Most of the advanced stuff is the software, which can be easily copied.

[-] outerspace@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago

What was stopping russia to deploy it a year ago?

[-] plyth@feddit.org 4 points 1 day ago

Like now, they don't have the AI technology.

[-] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago

This isn’t AI related. Russia was counting on a fast win to steal the resources they would need to lock it in. They didn’t get one.

[-] outerspace@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 day ago

What i mean is they know about it and had opportunity to do it too, but they didn't. That means there is something else they are missing

[-] plyth@feddit.org 1 points 1 day ago

Or they miss nothing but they are not as cruel and dystopian as our media presents them.

[-] EvilHankVenture@lemmy.world 4 points 20 hours ago

So they are choosing to lose thousands of soldiers everyday because it would be cruel to use more effective weapons? What the fuck are you talking about?

[-] plyth@feddit.org 1 points 5 hours ago

I thought about North Korea not using killer drones against its own population. For Russia in Ukraine, AI would make sense. So, why are they not using it? I think they don't have the technology. But also, why is Ukraine not using it?

[-] k0e3@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 day ago

Right, they decided to invade out of love.

[-] Magnum@infosec.pub 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Hahahaha, yes the Russians will concede because of morality

[-] outerspace@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 day ago
[-] plyth@feddit.org 1 points 1 day ago

So, what's the better explanation?

[-] EvilHankVenture@lemmy.world 2 points 20 hours ago

Soldiers are cheaper.

[-] outerspace@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago
[-] motruck@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago
[-] plyth@feddit.org 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Why? I haven't heard about existing autonomously flying killer drones yet. Why should Russia have them?

[-] JustAnotherPodunk@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

If drones are operated fiber optically, does an EMP even work?

[-] Mihies@programming.dev 21 points 1 day ago

You're confusing communication with what EMP is really good at - frying digital circuits

[-] busted_Anoose@aussie.zone 10 points 1 day ago

EMP destroys electronics. The fibre optics, plastic and metal will all be ok. the circuit boards will all be fried. Future drones will no doubt have emp protections, but its still early days

[-] Evotech@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Emps are good, but they don’t care if you are friend or foe, or civilian infrastructure and it doesn’t stop when it hits its intended target. So itll probably take out the next few Km’s

So you can probably just shoot it forward on the frontlines. But thats not really how drone warfare works alot of the time

this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2026
451 points (100.0% liked)

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