Ukraine unveils ‘terminator’ land drones that can fire machine guns and cross minefields
The drone conflict that has increasingly dominated the skies and waters of Ukraine and Russia is extending to land warfare, with both sides introducing experimental Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) as they seek an edge in the attritional conflict.
Ukraine has unveiled several ground drone designs over the past week, covering a range of combat functions.
The “Mule” is a flat, wheeled vehicle designed to carry loads across hazardous terrain from ammunition supplies to wounded soldiers. The “Lynx” can also carry equipment or fire on enemy forces through a remote controlled turret, operated by a soldier a safe distance away.
“They will become terminators on the frontline,” said Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s minister for digital transformation. “They will withstand enemy bullets and help our cyborgs destroy the enemy more effectively.”
The ground drones are a product of Ukraine’s domestic drone industry that is growing at an unprecedented pace, fuelled by a public-private sector partnership that draws on the country’s dynamic tech sector, as well as an international fundraising campaign.
Further designs are in the pipeline, including the “Hunter” robot developed by engineers at Sumy University, which is armed with a machine gun and rocket-launched grenades.
Kamikaze ground drones – already seen in the air and at sea – will crash into targets and detonate a payload of explosives. Crude versions have already seen action through vehicles packed with explosives and sent towards enemy lines.
Ukrainian strategists also believe UGVs can play a valuable role in helping to navigate Russian minefields that have presented a formidable barrier to Ukraine’s counteroffensive. With reported unit costs of less than £1,000, they could do so at minimal expense.
Russia is also displaying the products of a UGV programme. The defence ministry released footage of troops training with “combat robots” equipped with “large-calibre machine guns” on Thursday.
The session was purportedly located in occupied Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, the target of Ukraine’s offensive thrust, suggesting the robots could be used in combat.
Russia has also been testing prototypes for kamikaze drones intended to carry mines into enemy vehicles.
Other militaries around the world, including Australia, the UK, and US, are also developing UGV programmes. But as with land and sea drones, this war is driving the field forward by testing designs in active combat.
“The potential impact of the UGV is already being seen,” says Dr James Rogers, a drone specialist at the Cornell Brooks Tech Policy Institute and Nato adviser. “They have been used to defuse bombs, to detonate mines, but also to try to break through heavily defended frontline positions where it is impossible for humans to go.”
“As Russia’s offensive war in Ukraine has highlighted, drones across all domains, air, land and sea are the future of war – a tactically pragmatic, but worryingly dehumanising prospect.”
