Overview

• Russia has begun live trials of its autonomous MS001 loitering munition, deploying coordinated swarms that have been observed over Ukraine’s Sumy region.
• Captured debris reveals the MS001’s onboard suite includes Nvidia’s Jetson Orin AI chip, a thermal imager, CRPA-protected GPS, FPGA logic modules and a radio modem.
• The drone’s AI algorithms autonomously prioritize targets and dynamically adjust flight paths, sustaining operations despite electronic warfare countermeasures.
• A parallel Russian UAV, codename V2U, also incorporates the Jetson Orin on a Chinese Leetop A603 carrier board, indicating broader AI weaponization.
• Grey-market supply chains through Hong Kong, Singapore, Turkey and China continue to route Nvidia hardware into Russia, undermining U.S. export controls.