Our military discovered NVIDIA chips in new Russian UAVs

Ukrainian intelligence claims that Russian V2U strike drones operating in the Sumy direction are equipped with artificial intelligence based on NVIDIA Jetson Orin chips, despite the sanctions. UAVs are able to independently identify targets using computer vision instead of GPS.

According to the GUR, the new Russian V2U drones have an autonomous guidance system and operate without satellite navigation. The basis of the calculations is the Chinese mini-PC Leetop A203 with an NVIDIA Jetson Orin processor, which is usually intended for robotics and developers. The drone also uses a Sony module, a modem with a SIM card of a Ukrainian operator, an STM32 controller from Switzerland, components from Ireland, and most of the nodes are made in China.

The drone is able to recognize the landscape through the camera, comparing it with pre-loaded images, probably due to active GPS jamming by Ukrainian electronic warfare systems.

Jetson Orin Nano is a budget module from NVIDIA worth $ 249, created for education and DIY projects. After the start of a full-scale war, the United States imposed export restrictions on the supply of such technologies to Russia, and the company officially ceased operations there. However, as it turned out, Russian manufacturers receive critical components through China or intermediaries.

Ukrainian intelligence also established the involvement of at least two Russian and two Chinese companies involved in the supply and assembly of these drones. New generation drones, which autonomously detect targets using AI and do without GPS, are a serious challenge for Ukrainian air defense and electronic warfare forces. The presence of American chips, despite the embargo, indicates vulnerabilities in supply control. It is important for Ukrainian partners to promptly track the channels of technology leakage, because this is no longer just an engineering nuance – it is a weapon.