AI in Battlefield: Warfronts and Case Studies That Define Modern Conflict

In a previous article on how AI is being used to wage war — the technologies behind it, and the companies building the tools, I explained the foundations of AI-enabled conflict: surveillance, autonomy, decision-support, logistics, and simulation. But those concepts can feel abstract without grounding them in actual battlefields. This piece takes the next step — looking at where AI-powered systems are being used in real conflicts today, from Ukraine’s drone swarms to Israel–Gaza targeting systems and maritime autonomy in the Red Sea.

Quick summary (one line)

AI is already shaping fights on multiple active fronts — from Ukraine’s skies and Israel–Gaza to the Red Sea and the South Caucasus — by powering cheaper, faster sensing and decision tools, large drone swarms and maritime/autonomous systems; a mix of defense primes, “AI-native” startups and chip/cloud providers are supplying those capabilities. Business Insider+1

1) Ukraine — drone swarms, ISR fusion, and rapid local innovation

What’s happening: Ukraine is the clearest recent example of AI-enabled warfare at scale. Low-cost commercial and purpose-built drones (surveillance, loitering munitions, and interceptor drones) are used daily for reconnaissance, strike and air-defense tasks. Local industry and foreign suppliers supply both hardware and software for targeting, automated imagery analysis and swarm coordination; NATO/EU support is now pushing large scale production. Recent operations (e.g., massed drone attacks and interceptor night sorties) show rapid iteration in both hardware and AI-assisted mission planning. Business Insider+2Business Insider+2

Why AI matters here: computer vision for automatic target detection in video and satellite imagery, edge models on drones for navigation and evasion, and cloud/edge fusion platforms that speed up the observe-orient-decide-act loop. There are also reports of states trying to field more autonomous loitering munitions. CSIS+1

Companies and suppliers: a mix of local Ukrainian manufacturers, Western startups and the usual cloud/GPU suppliers. Palantir and other analytics firms have also been publicly reported as supplying data-fusion and decision platforms used by allied forces and partner agencies. InDepthNews+1

2) Israel–Gaza (and Lebanon theatre) — AI in ISR, target-sifting and information operations

What’s happening: After October 7, 2023, multiple outlets documented heavy use of surveillance, automated analysis and targeting assistance in Israel’s operations in Gaza (tools to triage targets from vast sensor fleets, faster geolocation and strike planning). Human rights organizations warned such tools risk increasing civilian harm when used without stringent safeguards. Reporting also highlights use of commercial cloud and AI services in support roles. Human Rights Watch+2AP News+2

Why AI matters here: LLMs and other analytics are used for processing open-source intelligence, extracting patterns, translating and summarising intercepts/reports, and triaging likely targets from imagery. Automated tools accelerate decision timelines but raise clear legal and ethical concerns when civilian areas are involved. Human Rights Watch

Companies and suppliers: major cloud and compute providers (and specialist defense contractors) are implicated in providing the underlying infrastructure and analytics; investigative reporting names several US tech firms providing services used by military partners. AP News

3) Red Sea / Arabian Sea (Houthis vs. shipping & coalition forces) — maritime autonomy and US Navy experiments

What’s happening: Attacks on commercial shipping and naval assets by Houthi forces prompted allied navies to test and deploy unmanned surface vessels (USVs) and autonomous sensors for patrol, detection and rapid response. The U.S. Navy has been experimenting with fleets of autonomous surface drones and integrated sensor networks to detect, monitor and, in some cases, engage small unmanned threats in the Red Sea. Defense Magazine+1

Why AI matters here: maritime sensor fusion, anomaly detection over large sea areas, and autonomy to keep unmanned systems operating in contested, GPS-degraded environments. AI also helps coordinate networks of manned and unmanned ships. Saildrone

Companies and suppliers: specialist US and European startups and primes are supplying USVs and autonomy stacks; Anduril and other autonomy firms are prominent names in allied procurement and experimentation (see next section). Defense Magazine+1

4) Nagorno-Karabakh / South Caucasus — drones changed the battlefield earlier, doctrine evolves

What’s happening: Azerbaijan’s use of Turkish-made and other loitering munitions in 2020 is a textbook case of how drones and supporting AI/automation (for reconnaissance and target cueing) can change outcomes. The conflict showed how integrating ISR, strike drones and real-time command systems can be decisive even for mid-sized states. Insight Turkey+1

Why AI matters here: automated target recognition in imagery; tactics, techniques and procedures for integrating unmanned systems into conventional combined arms. The Nagorno-Karabakh case pushed many militaries to rethink counter-drone and C2 investments. Military Strategy Magazine

5) Taiwan Strait — strategic competition, rapid AI modernization (potential front)

What’s happening: While not an active shooting war, the Taiwan Strait is a major geopolitical flashpoint where both sides are investing heavily in AI for ISR, cyber, logistics, autonomous swarms and decision-support. Governments and militaries on both sides are accelerating AI adoption as part of broader modernization and deterrence strategies; think-tank assessments and DoD reporting show PLA efforts to integrate civilian AI advances into military systems. CNAS+1

Why AI matters here: large-scale logistics, maritime and air surveillance, autonomous undersea/sea systems and automated targeting aids coupled to A2/AD (anti-access/area denial) concepts. This front matters because technological edge and chip supply chains (semiconductors) directly influence who can scale sophisticated AI systems first. Financial Times

6) Short list of other hotspot examples and asymmetric actors

• Libya / Sahel / Syria — non-state and state actors use commercial drones and improvised AI tools for surveillance and strikes (smaller scale but consequential).
• Non-state actors (terrorist groups, militias) — cheaper autonomy and open-source AI lower barriers for asymmetric attacks (recon drones, crude loitering munitions, and targeted disinformation).
  (These are well-documented patterns: cheaper sensors + accessible compute → rapid diffusion.) Global ECCO

Who’s building the tools on these fronts? (companies and roles — concrete mapping)

• Defense primes / integrators (Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon/RTX, BAE, Leonardo, Rheinmetall) — integrate sensors, radars, missiles, and increasingly AI subsystems into platforms used by state actors across the fronts above. CSIS
• “AI-native” defense startups (Anduril, Shield AI, Rebellion Defense, etc.) — rapid supplier of autonomy stacks, counter-UAS systems, and integrated sensor networks; Anduril in particular has grown into maritime/autonomy and border/force-protection systems and has been linked to allied procurements. Anduril Industries+1
• Data-fusion & analytics (Palantir, sector specialists) — Palantir’s platforms and similar systems are used for C2, targeting-support and demining/data fusion in multiple theatres. Palantir holds substantial DoD contracts for “Maven”/data platforms. DefenseScoop+1
• Chip & compute suppliers (NVIDIA, Intel, Arm) — GPUs and AI accelerators are the backbone for model training and inference used by militaries and contractors; NVIDIA is explicitly engaged with government AI programs. NVIDIA+1
• Cloud providers (Azure, AWS, Google Cloud) — provide secure “gov/military” cloud tooling and AI services that are used by states and allied militaries in ISR and C2 roles. Investigations have documented use of commercial cloud/AI in conflict reporting. AP News

Why these concrete warfronts matter (short analysis)

• Scale and diffusion: Ukraine demonstrated how commercial drone tech + localized manufacturing plus AI for targeting/identification scales quickly and imposes large costs. Business Insider+1
• Maritime & logistics: the Red Sea shows autonomous maritime systems are now operationally relevant for protecting sea lines of communication. Defense Magazine+1
• Legal and ethical stakes: Israel–Gaza and other densely populated theatres reveal the risks when AI-assisted targeting accelerates strike timelines in civilian environments; human rights groups have flagged these concerns. Human Rights Watch+1

Risks to watch (concrete, front-specific)

• Mistargeting in dense urban theatres (Gaza, parts of Ukraine): faster AI triage risks elevated civilian harm if human review is limited. Human Rights Watch
• Swarm saturation & supply asymmetries (Ukraine): mass cheap drones can overwhelm defenses, favoring whoever can produce at scale (note EU funding to boost Ukrainian drone industry). Business Insider
• Autonomy in seas and undersea (Red Sea / future Pacific): loss of robust human oversight over autonomous vessels raises escalation and legal questions. Defense Magazine
• Proliferation to non-state groups: cheap AI tools and drones lower the barrier to entry for militias and terrorist groups.

AI is no longer just a future concept for militaries — it is shaping today’s conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, the Red Sea, and beyond. The companies, technologies, and strategies driving this shift are redefining how wars are fought and how quickly they evolve.

When read alongside the first article on how AI is being used to wage war — the technologies behind it, and the companies building the tools, this piece completes the picture: from the foundations of AI-enabled warfare to the concrete battlefields where those tools are already in use. Together, they show both the power and peril of letting algorithms, sensors, and autonomous machines into the heart of modern conflict.