- Ukraine deploys robotic units to reduce exposure of front-line soldiers
- Ground robots now handle logistics and combat battlefield roles
- Commanders see machines replacing nearly a third of the infantry
More than four years into this grinding war, remote-controlled ground robots are fundamentally reshaping the battlefield.
Ukrainian commanders and engineers now claim that unmanned ground vehicles represent the next major phase of modern combat.
The future of warfare has already arrived, they claim, and it moves on tracks rather than legs.
A unit built around machines rather than men
Ukraine’s 3rd Separate Assault Brigade intends to replace about 30% of its infantry with Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs).
“The logic is simple: where the risk to a human is high, a robot should be used. Because an infantryman’s life is priceless, and robots don’t bleed,” Mykola Zinkevych, head of the “NC13” Strike UGV Unit.
“We are working towards a model where UGVs take on the most dangerous tasks, while infantry becomes a highly specialized force that focuses on what UGVs cannot do.”
His unit now claims to be the world’s first strike UGV formation to operate without any existing military doctrine.
Last year in the northeastern Kharkiv region, Ukrainian forces carried out a mission using only drones and ground robots.
President Volodymyr Zelensky described how Russian occupiers surrendered during an operation that did not involve advancing infantry.
“The occupiers surrendered and the operation was carried out without infantry and without casualties on our side,” he claimed.
Logistics and firepower transformed
A modern infantryman can carry about 20 kg of equipment over distance, but logistic UGVs transport 200 to 600 kg to frontline positions.
These machines deliver critical supplies, evacuate wounded troops, hold territorial positions and destroy enemy bunkers.
According to Ukraine’s military commanders, the growing use of UGVs has already significantly eased the infantry’s burden.
“It’s easier to control an area for 24 hours when you’re sitting in a safe zone 50 km from the UGV and you can swap with your team and another guy does it,” says Oleg Fedoryshyn, head of research and design at DevDroid.
The average UGV costs the Ukrainian military about $30,000, rising to $50,000 with a Browning machine gun mounted on top.
Commander Zinkevych estimates his unit has conducted more than 100 strike operations using UGVs in recent months
“During these missions we have destroyed enemy troops, shelters, command posts and other high value targets,” he says
Still, he warns that slowing the pace of development is something Ukraine simply cannot allow.
About 10 to 15% of deployed robots are lost in combat, although many are later repaired and returned to service.
Ukrainian forces hail these machines as life-saving innovations, but there are concerns that remote warfare could unnecessarily exacerbate the scale of the war.
“Where we have an instrument that serves to use force, operated remotely, there is a risk that the threshold for using force is lowered,” explained Professor Elke Schwarz, an expert in military technologies at Queen Mary University.
“… and civilian populations are potentially at risk of bearing the brunt of the use of force.”
However, she concludes that Kiev is developing this tactic out of sheer necessity against an existential threat.
Whether robots ultimately spare lives or simply make war more sustainable is still an open question.
Via Independent
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