Audio Briefs “How Russia Is Reshaping Command and Control for AI-Enabled Warfare”: Audio Brief with Kate Bondar
Feb 11, 2026
Kate Bondar, a CSIS fellow focused on AI and defense policy, presents her white paper. She explains how Russia scales practical command-and-control tools and uses unmanned systems to speed targeting. She highlights selective AI adoption on the battlefield and urges adaptation of resilient data and rapid modernization.
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Scaling Over Breakthroughs
- Russia excels at scaling what already works rather than initial innovation.
- When centralized C2 modernization stalled, Moscow pivoted to smaller, task-specific tools.
Drones Drive Tactical Priorities
- Unmanned systems now perform up to 80% of Russian fire missions, reshaping priorities.
- Innovation focuses on drone management, recon-strike integration, and faster kill chains.
Selective AI Adoption
- Russia adopts AI unevenly across capabilities based on battlefield payoff.
- Computer vision and sensor fusion are combat-validated while NLP for decision support remains experimental.