The system gathers and integrates information from diverse participants, including reconnaissance units,[2] civilian officials,[3] foreign intelligence partners,[2] and vetted bystanders.[3] Sources include commercial and military drones,[3][2] sensor networks,[1] satellite imagery,[1] and intelligence from partner countries.[2]Geolocated data is mapped in real time, along with pictures of enemy assets.[1]
Delta covers a wide range of battlefield management tasks, including the planning of operations and combat missions, coordination between units, and secure exchange of information about the location of enemy forces.[1]
On the backend side, it's a cloud native environment.[1] On the client side, it runs on regular PCs, laptop, tablets or mobile phones.[1]
The system became broadly operational in August 2022.[3] The software was developed in coordination with NATO.[3] The system was first tested in 2017, as part of a NATO initiative "to wean troops off Russian standards of siloing information among ground units instead of sharing it".[3] Ukraine surprised NATO in quickly making this system even more accessible to troops than "more modern militaries".[3] Delta, in its prototype phase, was first "pressed to its limits" during the Ukrainian counteroffensive to the Russian Kyiv convoy.[3] The Ukrainian Defense Ministry credits Delta for helping identify 1500 confirmed, Russian targets daily during this time period.[3]
In December 2022, Delta was the target of an adversarial phishing endeavor.[4][5]
On 4 February 2023, the Ukrainian government gave approval to full deployment of the Delta system to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and permitted hosting of Delta's cloud-components outside of Ukraine to protect it against missile and cyber attacks.[6]
Centrality of drone warfare
Aerorozvidka specializes aerial reconnaissance and drone warfare and their main contribution to Delta likely lies in this sphere. Delta, in this view, serves as a key link between raw reconnaissance (often remote photographic telemetry), identification, prioritization, and attack, facilitating a more rapid response cycle across diverse and dispersed participants and resources, known in military parlance as the kill chain.
Systems such as Delta are poised to become a key information-management component of the rapid evolution of drone warfare on the modern battlefield.[7] Mykhailo Fedorov, Minister of Digital Transformation, would like to see 10,000 drones operating continuously along the front lines.[7] This vision entails a substantial network of digital coordination.
For reasons of ongoing operations security, the precise nature of the integration between Delta and drone warfare remains undisclosed.
