Ukraine Buys Thousands Of Robot Ground Vehicles, Many Already Deployed In Kursk

Ukraine is making a significant investment in robotic ground drones to offset its disadvantage in troop numbers. 

The ground drones are reported to have already been deployed in Kursk oblast and may be seen in larger numbers on other sectors of the front next year. JL

The Telegraph reports:

Ukraine has bought thousands of uncrewed robotic ground vehicles to shuttle ammunition and supplies to infantry in the trenches and evacuate wounded soldiers. The vehicles are already being used along the front in Russia’s Kursk region. The buggy-like vehicles spare troops from operating in areas near the front where Russian shelling and drones are rife. Ukraine has several training centres to teach their use. “This year we purchased several thousand ground platforms. Next year we need tens of thousands.”

Ukraine has bought thousands of uncrewed robotic ground vehicles to shuttle ammunition and supplies to infantry in the trenches and evacuate wounded soldiers.

The buggy-like vehicles, an example of how technology is transforming trench warfare in Ukraine, would spare troops from operating in areas near the front where Russian shelling and drones are rife, Mykhailo Fedorov, the deputy prime minister for innovation, said.

Mr Fedorov, who has overseen drone procurement for most of the war, told Reuters: “This year we purchased several thousand ground platforms, and next year, I believe, we need tens of thousands.”

 

The vehicles, he said, are already being used along the front and in Russia’s Kursk region, where Kyiv’s troops carved out an enclave in an August incursion. Ukraine has several training centres to teach their use, he added.

Ukraine is slowly losing territory to Russia in the east. Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, said on Sunday that his army no longer had the firepower or manpower to take back occupied parts of his country, and is now pushing for a “diplomatic” solution.

The use of military technology has rapidly evolved, even as the war has been locked in a bloody, attritional struggle with no major battlefield changes despite Russia’s recently accelerating gains 33 months since the 2022 invasion.

 

Ukraine had attack drones that could fly up to 1,800 km (1,120 miles), he said, also confirming that Ukraine was working on drones to intercept the Shahed-type long-range attack drones that Russia uses for its nightly attacks on Ukrainian cities.

“There is some testing by certain companies producing ... aircraft that, thanks to specialised software and radars, can strike Shaheds, but this is still in the research and development phase. There are certain results,” he said.

He added that Ukraine had contracted to buy 1.6 million drones this year, of which 1.3 million had been supplied, including low-cost “first-person view” drones that have cameras allowing remote pilots to fly them towards their targets.

Ukraine has also been using dozens of domestically made artificial intelligence-augmented systems for its drones to reach targets on the battlefield without being piloted, allowing it to remain effective in areas protected by extensive jamming.

Mr Fedorov said 10 companies were consistently competing in state procurements to offer AI products.

“I think next year will significantly increase the percentage of autonomous drones with targeting,” he said. “We might see the first real drone swarm uses, though not on a massive scale. The first steps will happen.”