Ukrainian brigades ask for over 45,000 licences for Occam's drone software

Ukrainian brigades have asked for more than 45,000 drone licences for Occam's autonomy software for the fourth quarter of this year alone, co-founder and chief executive Gui Wainwright told Militär Aktuell at the Future Forces Forum 2026. Occam makes one piece of software meant to let drones from different manufacturers act on their own.

Wainwright said a soldier switches the system on and gives it a task, such as reconnaissance, searching for infantry, attacking a tank or delivering a medical pack, and the drone carries it out. The software runs on computing hardware costing about $20 to $50, and some brigades use it as a backup that takes over when the link to a human-flown drone is lost.

According to Wainwright, the software is already used in the war in Ukraine, team members stay with partner brigades to collect feedback, and the company improves it in two-week cycles. He said a brigade and a manufacturer new to Occam asked about a month ago for a task to be done autonomously at night; within two weeks Occam had taught it to its AI and tested it, and two weeks later it was used in combat.

Wainwright said Occam is about a year old and has started interception and long-range strike missions. He said it should not be Occam that decides how a state wages war, and that the company gives defence ministries tools to set their own limits for autonomous systems.