Ukraine Finds Nvidia AI Chip In New Russian Missile (kyivpost.com)
- Reference: 0184974445
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/08/14/1736254/ukraine-finds-nvidia-ai-chip-in-new-russian-missile
- Source link: https://www.kyivpost.com/post/82225
> Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) has identified an Nvidia Jetson Orin computer module inside Russia's new S-71 Monochrome air-launched cruise missile, potentially [2]indicating the use of artificial intelligence technology in the weapon , the agency said Wednesday, Aug. 12. The finding was [3]published in the 'Components in Weapons' section of the HUR's War&Sanctions portal, which documents foreign electronic components found in Russian weapons used against Ukraine.
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> The latest research identified 35 electronic components in Russian weapons, according to the HUR. HUR specialists identified the Nvidia Jetson Orin module in the S-71 Monochrome, a new Russian air-launched cruise missile. The agency said the use of the computer module may indicate the integration of artificial intelligence technologies into the missile. The HUR did not provide further details on the specific functions performed by the Nvidia module in the weapon.
[1] https://slashdot.org/~AmiMoJo
[2] https://www.kyivpost.com/post/82225
[3] https://gur.gov.ua/content/warsanctions-u-novii-rosiiskii-raketi-monokhrom-vyiavyly-mikrokompiuter-nvidia-jetson-shcho-mozhe-svidchyty-pro-vykorystannia-shi.html
Probably NOT an AI chip (Score:3)
Pretty sure it is NOT an "AI" chip. It is an older chip / chipset that is legal to export. Think Nvidia Shield class, more than AI class.
Re: (Score:2)
You can get this kind of basic image recognition on $20 ARM boards from China. I've got a rock3a (older, barely capable compared to whats available now) board cluster that does this kind of image recognition for my cameras. rpi3 level stuff. That it was nvidia just speaks to what is available.
Quid Pro Quo (Score:1, Troll)
The US intelligence agencies determined it was not in the United State's national security interest for Nvidia's most advanced chips to be exported without control, for fear they'd fall into the wrong hands, (like the Chinese). [1]The UAE really wanted to buy those chips so they bribed Trump [theguardian.com] and [2]voila [reuters.com]!
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/02/trump-uae-crypto-deal
[2] https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-makes-it-easier-export-certain-military-items-ai-chips-commercial-satellites-2026-07-10/
Re: (Score:2)
LOL they aren't putting Blackwell into rockets.
Re: (Score:2)
can't afford to, heck probably more cost effective to resell them then to fire them
Not very cutting edge.... (Score:2)
Jetson Orin is roughly 4 year old tech that's EOL now. I'm not sure how newsworthy this is. It's a graphics chip for mobile applications, not really an AI chip.
Nothing to see here....
Re: (Score:3)
> Jetson Orin is roughly 4 year old tech that's EOL now. I'm not sure how newsworthy this is. It's a graphics chip for mobile applications, not really an AI chip.
Really? The wiki says it's most recent 2023 version has "up to 2048-core Nvidia Ampere architecture GPU with 64 Tensor cores" and supports 4-64GB ram. That sounds pretty AI to me.
Is it cutting edge? No. But it sure seems to be more than just a graphics chip for mobile applications.
Re: (Score:3)
The problem is that no one distinguishes between AI and machine learning anymore. These chips do image processing, which is not what any sensible person would call AI, but you gotta get those clicks somehow...
Re: (Score:2)
How is it not AI? It's replacing a task that formerly required human intelligence with some artifice. Such tasks have been called AI for years, on and off. In fact the very first attempt at AI (the perceptron Mark 1) was an image recognition device.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, I guess you could call a cruise missile a "mobile" application.
Bottom line it's a Russian weapons system enabled by an American electronics component.
So Nvidia can sell to Russia or North Korea? (Score:2)
Or China?
Cool!
Not the first time (Score:3)
American boards and ICs have been finding their way into Russian weapons for quite some time now.
Re: (Score:2)
> American boards and ICs have been finding their way into Russian weapons for quite some time now.
Whether Russia, China, Iran, or North Korea (pick your favorite country), chips leak all the time, in smaller quantities (unless you are going to implement extensive and intrusive export checks of every package, suitcase, backpack, or pants pocket, you simply can't stop it). As long as there is advantage (usually money) to be made, someone will find a way.
What a waste (Score:3, Funny)
> Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) has identified an Nvidia Jetson Orin computer module inside Russia's new S-71 Monochrome air-launched cruise missile ...
A high-end graphics company chip in a monochrome system. :-)
"Potentially" is doing a lot of work here (Score:3)
"AI" could mean "statistical pattern recognition" or "image processing and object classification" or "flight control" or "target prioritization" or any number of other things that aren't quite what we usually mean in 2026 when we toss around the term "AI" in 2026. (Certainly there's no need for a missile to have anything resembling a LLM.)
For example, given Ukraine's steadily-improving defenses, it might make sense to equip a missile with enough data acquisition and processing capacity to select targets based on real-time conditions while en route -- e.g., to shift from a primary target to a secondary one if the defenses around the primary seem to be working too well. Given all the RF jamming in play, that'd have to be done by onboard processing with no reliance on external communications.
But this is all speculation. Until they get their hands on one that's intact enough to recover the code running it, we won't really know. But one thing that's clear is that the Russians didn't install it in a munition arbitrarily: they had a reason. (Insert quote from "The Hunt for Red October" about Russians and plans.)
Re: (Score:3)
Russia has a history there. In the 70s they had missiles that could prioritise targets based on size (for attacking ships), and share target info with other missiles.
Ukrainian forests are now criss crossed by kilometres and kilometres of fibre optic cable. RF control of drones is dead due to all the jamming.
The board source is more important (Score:2)
While it's fun to point out components, I think the bigger story would lie in where the signal processing board(s) are coming from. Russia does have fairly modern in-house electronics design and manufacturing but without vendor support integration of things like Jetsons into bespoke designs is pretty difficult. I would expect that they're actually sourcing whole boards and sensors (cameras) and hacking together interfaces to their known missile control systems.
Why?! (Score:2)
Why?!
Seems most likely to be a misinformation campaign. There's plenty of ways to navigate a middle and none of them require AI.
Re: (Score:2)
Some of the Ukrainian drones are using AI to identify targets. Seems like it would be too slow for missiles, but whatever...
Re:Why?! (Score:5, Interesting)
Why? Projectiles obviously run a dozen different object classification and detection tasks. Nvidia Jetson are perfect for running mobile, battery powered ML workloads of all kinds, they are just commodity ARM cpus but have a lot of RAM and strong GPU performance (extremely strong when you look at performance/gram).
They also recovered chinese PTZ camera, so probably someone just importing these from chinese old-stocks. Although, current-gen Jetsons may still be importable to china since they are definitely not in the 'AI Datacenter' class
Re: (Score:2)
> Why?!
Target recognition. For example a particular building in a city.
> Seems most likely to be a misinformation campaign. There's plenty of ways to navigate a middle and none of them require AI.
In an electronic warfare environment using visual identification is an important capability. Note “visual” is not necessarily limited to the human visual spectrum.
Re: Why?! (Score:2)
If you're hitting something the size of a building you don't need an Nvidia chip.
My issue with it isn't that they're using a processor, it's that this class of processor is likely overkill. So, either it's so readily available they have a warehouse full of them, or somebody wants to stir up shit. I'm guessing it's effectively the latter. It's more politically with it to raise the concern that it is to bother sourcing this component for production.
Basic image recognition sufficient for mapping navigation can
Re: (Score:2)
Why not? If you're Russia why wouldn't you use this chip?
Re: Why?! (Score:2)
Because a raspi can do the job they are presumably doing with it. There's no need for this class of hardware unless you're really incompetent.
Oh wait, we're talking about Russia...
Re: (Score:2)
Sure, let's discuss that. You've got a handful of methods historically:
- GPS/GLONASS/Starlink - can be jammed.
- Wire - inaccurate, not suitable for OTH guided missiles
- Pigeon - inaccurate and expensive
- Radar - can be jammed
- IR/laser - line of sight/requires IR signatures
- inertia - inaccurate, expensive.
There's nothing which really compares to "AI" in capability or accuracy. It's the only option which can't be jammed directly short of active EMP and provides the required/desired accuracy.
Re: (Score:1)
Very likely has nothing to do with Machine Learning. My old mentor worked for a defense contractor where they had 6 SPARC processors in a missile for its advanced guidance system. Thousands of dollars worth of compute, used to guide a missile accurately to the point where it would explode. What a damn waste.
These are likely chips used for missile guidance and thrust/fin control.