London and Kyiv in deal to help stop protesters and hostile states targeting military bases and critical infrastructure

AI models trained on Ukrainian battlefield data will be used to stop protesters and foreign states targeting UK defence sites, railways and energy plants under a deal struck between London and Kyiv.

Private companies will also be given access to the vast trove of data from Ukraine’s Avengers AI lab to help build new systems, the first agreement of its kind in the UK.

The scheme will be piloted at a UK defence site, building a model to identify protesters or a hostile-state attack. It uses AI-optimised sensors in buried fibre-optic cables to detect different kinds of movement.

The government has suggested the technology, if proven workable, could be used at airports, prisons, railways and energy infrastructure.

The controversial proscription of the activist group Palestine Action was sparked after the group breached RAF Brize Norton on scooters last June, a highly embarrassing security lapse as a result of which the group was able to deface two military aircraft with spray paint before escaping the site without being detained.

Palestine Action said at the time that it had targeted RAF Voyager aircraft used for transport and refuelling, and that “activists have interrupted Britain’s direct participation in the commission of genocide and war crimes across the Middle East”.

Private companies will be able to access the data once approved by the MoD on a secure platform, though the data sharing is likely to raise alarm among privacy campaigners.

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