MOSCOW - Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said Wednesday that the success of Russian troops in the special military operation (SMO) is largely determined by the effectiveness of unmanned system control.

Belousov made the remarks when chairing a technical council focused on advancing the unmanned complex control system and boosting its effectiveness.

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"The experience of the special military operation has shown that the scale of unmanned complex deployment has grown significantly in recent times. Up to 80 percent of fire missions in the SMO zone are carried out using such systems," Belousov said.

"In this regard, improving control has become a top priority. Today, we will map out directions for the development of the unmanned system control framework for both short-term and long-term horizons," he said.

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As reported by the Russian Defense Ministry, during the technical council, participants reviewed an analysis of the military's use of unmanned systems and discussed matters related to enhancing situational awareness and automating the control of these systems, including the use of artificial intelligence (AI), computer vision, and neural networks.