Dutch firm uses AI to help drone systems 'talk' on Ukraine's battlefield

KATWIJK AAN ZEE, Netherlands, Oct 8 - A high-velocity drone launched at a disused Dutch airbase by the North Sea roars through the clouds and intercepts a mock enemy target detected by radar and verified using artificial intelligence.

The test by software company Intelic, which has a €30-million ($33.5-million) contract with the Dutch Defence Ministry to upgrade its air defences, is an example of how technology is being developed and provided to Ukraine by European companies to help it defend itself against Russian attacks.

Amsterdam-based Intelic, one of scores of firms operating out of converted hangars at the airbase, now has an office in Kyiv and is helping Ukrainian forces as they face intensified Russian drone and missile barrages in a war in which drones have transformed the battlefield and driven rapid innovation.

In the test in late September, Intelic's AI-powered software, Nexus, used multiple radars, sensors and cameras provided by other companies to identify the projectile as an enemy attack. A reconnaissance drone then verified it was an enemy drone with image recognition.

Although a human made the final decision to launch the AI-guided interceptor drone, the process could be fully autonomous, said Intelic CEO and founder Maurits Korthals Altes.

"Most of these systems use AI at the edge, so in the drone itself, to be able to hit a target, a flying drone for instance, and then actually get intercepted at high speeds," he said.

"But you can also have AI for decision support," for example by assisting a commander in the field, when there is sometimes a window of only a few seconds to decide whether or not to fire on an incoming jet-propelled drone.

The integration between the different systems enables a commander to make such decisions quickly. At high speeds, Korthals Altes said, "you're not so likely to hit it manually, and you need a more autonomous system."

The Dutch government's investment is part of a spending push by the NATO country, which has allocated about €1.4 billion since 2022 to Ukraine's drone programme, making it one of Europe's leading contributors along with Germany and Britain, figures from the Kiel Institute in Germany show.

'CONNECTING TISSUE'

Since 2022, the Netherlands has provided military aid to Ukraine worth more than €12.5 billion, including nearly 1 million drones, the Defence Ministry said.

The Kiel Institute, which tracks military spending in Ukraine, said European aid for drones had jumped from €400 million in 2022, the year of Russia's full-scale invasion, to €1.2 billion in 2025. The figure rose to €1.6 billion in the first four months of 2026 alone, it said.

Kyiv has increasingly sought support from allies to boost its air defences, but European companies provide many different types of drones, which do not always "talk" to each other.

"Right now in Europe, there are over 700 drone manufacturers, and if we want to stay sovereign within Europe, we need to be able to have a system that is the connecting tissue between those different systems," said Anika Kempter, a senior software engineer at Intelic.

She said Ukrainian brigades "might have different drones of different types from different vendors with different screens. Nexus solves this problem. So they can connect all of their drones in one system."

DRONE TECHNOLOGY RACE

During the airbase test, engineers hovered over screens in a mobile command post using an interface that for the first time brings together radar target detection, AI verification and interceptor drones. Each component could be individually selected and operated from the single control panel.

Intelic's command-and-control system is being rolled out on Ukraine's battlefield, where operational decisions are sometimes still communicated via chat apps or phone calls. It supplements Delta, Ukraine's own advanced battlefield management system.

Replacing human communication with autonomous systems shaves minutes off the time between when a drone is detected and forces try to shoot it down, potentially meaning the difference between life and death, Kempter said.

Russia now uses jet-propelled attack drones that fly at high altitude. In the first three weeks of September, Russia launched 2,100 such drones and 136 missiles at Ukraine, killing 288 people, Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi said.

Drone technology develops so quickly that air-defence hardware can rapidly become obsolete and need upgrading, but Intelic's software can bridge the gap by adding new weapon systems to the platform, said Korthals Altes.

"That's very important in an environment that's unpredictable," he said. "Because nobody really knows how a war or threat would look ... in two years. We have an idea, but we don't know for sure. So that adaptability is key." REUTERS