Auterion equips Ukrainian Shrike drones with the Skynode S autonomous targeting system
Since mid-July 2026, Auterion has been supplying the Ukrainian army with Shrike drones (company SkyFall) equipped with the Skynode S kit, which enables autonomous tracking and striking of moving targets without GPS and is resistant to signal jamming. 50 000 units are planned.
The American company Auterion began delivering Shrike drones from the Ukrainian company SkyFall, equipped with Skynode S autonomous hardware and software, to the Ukrainian army in mid-July 2026. The companies plan to deliver a total of 50 000 drones with this kit over the coming months. According to Lorenz Meier, CEO of Auterion, the operator first manually guides an FPV (first-person view) drone into the battlefield area, designates a target up to half a mile away, and then switches the drone to “fire-and-forget" terminal guidance mode.
The operator can abort the attack at any time or select another target if they have a radio connection with the drone. However, the drone can track and strike the target autonomously even without human guidance – whether the connection drops because of terrain and buildings or because of deliberate signal jamming by the enemy. According to the company, the software from Auterion relies exclusively on images from the main onboard camera of the drone, so tracking and striking moving targets do not require GPS – an advantage on a battlefield where GPS signal jamming is common.
Since their deployment following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Shrike drones have struck numerous vehicle-sized targets, including tanks, electronic warfare systems, artillery guns, and rocket launchers. According to the Kyiv Independent website, these drones have also destroyed two Russian Mi-28 helicopters, whose value is estimated at up to 19 million dollars each. According to Auterion, autonomous guidance without GPS or dependence on an uninterrupted connection is intended to further increase the success rate of attacks.
Why it matters
A drone that independently completes an attack on a moving target after losing its radio connection, without human intervention and without GPS, changes the existing model of remotely piloted strike drones – autonomy is activated precisely in situations where jamming or terrain had previously made an attack impossible. The scale of the planned delivery (50 000 units) suggests a transition from experimental deployment to widespread equipping of combat units, which has implications for the debate over control of autonomous weapons systems as well as for the further development of similar products in the defense industry.
Relevant practical impact
What this means
For a business
The delivery of 50 000 units shows that autonomous targeting software has become a commercially scalable product in the defense industry – for companies such as Auterion, this is a high-volume contract that moves AI autonomy from pilot deployments to widespread equipping of combat units.
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