The Swedish military needs to acquire several million military drones, according to Army Chief of Staff Jonny Lindfors. A Swedish system of “suicide drones” is expected to be in operation as early as 2027.
In recent years, remotely piloted unmanned vehicles have become an increasingly common feature of war and conflict – not least during the ongoing war in Ukraine. Drones can be used in a variety of ways – for reconnaissance and mapping of enemy troops – but also as lethal weapons that can carry out attacks themselves and take out targets.
However, the use of the weapon system is not without controversy, and critics have often argued that it blurs the lines of responsibility and that the large-scale use of drones increases the risks of mistakes and innocent people being killed after wrong decisions.
Much of the criticism has also focused on the dehumanization and automation of warfare and the trend towards autonomous weapons systems making lethal decisions without human intervention. Several experts and human rights organizations have warned about the risks of leaving the killing entirely or partly to algorithms.
Can act without human intervention
According to Jonny Lindfors, however, military unmanned vehicles are the future and he believes that every Swedish unit will soon have its own drones.
The Swedish Armed Forces are currently investing heavily in the development of new advanced drone technology and several Swedish units are now training with the weapon systems, reports state broadcaster SVT.
This may involve, for example, a single soldier controlling a very large number of drone swarms used to monitor airspace or attack various targets. During the recent People and Defense conference, new technology was also presented that allows drones to act more independently and cooperate in a different way than before.
– It’s a number of vehicles that use software to solve autonomous tasks. They interact internally, says Andreas Ziegenfeldt, the army’s head of development.
“Explodes and destroys the target”
Suicide or “kamikaze” drones have also been secretly tested for some time by the Armed Forces. These drones are equipped with explosive charges and, with the help of artificial intelligence, can fly around until they find their designated target – whereupon they fly into it and explode.
The drones can be manually controlled and monitored by human eyes – but they also have the ability to carry out missions without human micromanagement.
– A human operator turns them on and then they can fly on their own, find targets, and attack targets on their own, AI and weapons researcher Arash Heydarian Pashakhanlou described the drone type 2022.
– It can fly into the target on its own, explode and destroy the target, he clarified at the time.
“Can’t buy a million”
If procurement processes go smoothly, Swedish suicide drone systems are expected to be operational already in 2027-2028.
Although the Swedish Armed Forces say they need millions of drones, there is no question of buying such quantities in advance – instead, “thousands” of drones will be purchased during the year, they say.
“We need to be able to grow that capacity quickly, but we can’t buy a million drones and keep them in stock, because they will be old when we need them”, Lindfors continues.
