A new deal to train Ukrainian drone operators will boost the country’s ability to launch long-range, jam-resistant strikes, the president of Shield AI told Defense One.
In an interview, Brandon Tseng said the deal, which is being announced today, would enable Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces—“the premier [tactical] drone-operating military in the entire world”—to better operate V-BAT “strategic-level” drones that can penetrate more deeply amid GPS interference and sophisticated electronic warfare efforts.
Tseng, who co-founded the San Diego-based AI developer and maker of the V-BAT, declined to detail the training effort, such as how many operators would participate.
He did say Ukraine aims to increase its abilities before the fighting season returns later this year.
“The crews have been moved from the front line specifically for this project, like some of their best drone operators. It’s because they recognize the importance of this effort,” Tseng said. “There’s demand for 120-plus V-BATS in that region now. They would like them as quickly as possible.”
“We’re super pumped working with unmanned-systems forces,” he said.
The announcement follows an August pathfinding operation in which Ukrainian operators used V-BATs to help with targeting long-range attacks on SA-11 Buk missiles and other heavily defended Russian assets.
That effort, he said, was led by “a very, very small, volunteer element.”
The company is also looking to provide Ukraine with software and other tech to enable one-way attack drones to better withstand Russian electromagnetic warfare.
The U.S. has backed such efforts since fall 2022, when National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan hosted a meeting with top U.S. defense-tech firms to figure out how to supply drones to Ukraine and help it develop its own industry and domestic supply of drone weapons.
“We recognized…that UAVs were going to become increasingly central to that fight, the fight in Ukraine, as well as to all future fights,” Sullivan told a small group of reporters Wednesday. “I personally hosted that meeting to get a better sense of the technology landscape, and then to try to increase connectivity between those technology firms and Ukrainian manufacturers and the military.”
More recently, Sullivan said, he has emphasized the importance of drones and drone production, especially for long-range strike, to Trump administration national-security team members.
“The point that I’m trying to register for the incoming team is whatever happens in Ukraine, the need for this sustained scale up is there. [It’s there] for U.S. deterrence and U.S. defense needs for this foreseeable future, and we just have to be able to somehow convert that reality into an actionable demand signal that industry can respond to.”
Tseng says drones like the Ukraine-proven V-BAT can help the Pentagon improve the accuracy and targeting of its long-range fires.
As for Ukraine, Tseng said the incoming Trump team should “listen to the Ukrainian generals and what the Ukrainian generals are asking for”: tech that enables drones to operate despite Russian EW.
