Elbit Unveils AI-Powered Robotic Warfare Systems for Future Battlefields
Elbit Systems' FUSE company has revealed advanced artificial intelligence (AI) systems designed to operate swarms of drones, autonomous vehicles, and coordinated fire and logistics arrays, signaling a move towards robotic warfare. The development is partly influenced by lessons learned from the war in Ukraine, pushing the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) towards a more automated battlefield.
The newly unveiled systems are based on a unified AI operating system, enabling centralized coordination of large numbers of autonomous drones and distributed ground and air systems. Elbit states that FUSE provides militarily mature autonomous systems for extensive, multi-theater operations with high survivability, leveraging Elbit's operational experience and advanced manufacturing infrastructure.
FUSE solutions have accumulated over one million operational flight hours and more than one hundred thousand hours of autonomous ground operation. Thousands of FUSE platforms have been supplied to customers globally. Demonstrations showcased capabilities ranging from autonomous logistics convoys and casualty evacuation to complex maneuvering formations involving numerous vehicles equipped with various weapon systems, from personal to heavy artillery.
The robotic battlefield concept extends to drone capabilities, including those with ranges exceeding 100 kilometers, some capable of delivering supplies like blood for the IDF, and others designed for attack missions, including missile and kamikaze drones. All these systems can operate with AI.
Elbit highlighted that FUSE's Dominion-X operating system is central to its portfolio, enabling "One2Many" capabilities in GPS-denied environments, automatic target recognition (ATR), and real-time coordination of autonomous air and ground systems. This system facilitates mission data sharing and distributed operations through a common mission network.
FUSE solutions are designed for challenging environments, including those without GPS, and support complex operations, distributed autonomy, and manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T). They allow military forces to quickly integrate autonomous capabilities into existing tactical assets, creating coordinated autonomous arrays and optimizing existing force structures. The systems are deployed operationally with customers in Israel, the United States, and Europe, supporting ongoing missions and military modernization programs.
