The Ukrainian attack coordinated unmanned land and aerial vehicles on a scale not previously done, marking a new chapter of warfare where humans are largely removed from the front line, at least in the opening stages. Some drones moved on land, including ones mounted with machine guns or packed with explosives. A four-wheeled drone churned through the mud toward a Russian bunker, where it arrived and exploded. Others came by air, dropping munitions and providing a view of the battlefield. The attack involved 50 unmanned aerial vehicles and destroyed a Russian position north of Kharkiv. (In the future) AI will allow drone swarms to coordinate among themselves. But the Ukraine operation needed exact coordination between different command posts operated by human soldiers.
In a snowy forest not long after dawn, a four-wheeled drone churned through the mud toward its target: a Russian bunker, where it eventually arrived and exploded.
More drones followed.
Some moved on land, including ones mounted with machine guns or packed with explosives. Others came by air, dropping munitions and providing a view of the battlefield.
The attack by the Ukrainians in December coordinated unmanned land and aerial vehicles on a scale that hadn’t previously been done, marking a new chapter of warfare where humans are largely removed from the front line of the battlefield, at least in the opening stages. The Ukraine war has led to a rapid evolution in drone warfare, as both sides have continually innovated in an effort to get an upper hand. Though it was later rescinded, the recent halt to U.S. military aid and intelligence sharing only highlighted how vital drones are to Ukraine as it tries to hold out against the Russians, who have a manpower advantage of 5-to-1 on some parts of the front line.
The December attack involved about 50 unmanned aerial vehicles and destroyed a Russian position north of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, according to the force that conducted the operation, Ukraine’s 13th National Guard Brigade Khartiya. The Wall Street Journal viewed video footage of the assault.
The attack served as a proof of concept. Though it had its problems, other Ukrainian units are now planning similar missions. It did have some teething issues. The land drones in particular struggled with the terrain. And, while the drones did the fighting, good leadership, planning and drone operators remained essential, the U.S.-trained brigade said.
When the five-hour operation ended, Lt. Andriy Kopach, who specializes in land drones, was so exhausted he could think of nothing but sleep. Later, as international companies and governments began to reach out with questions about the attack, its significance became clearer.
“Then I was thinking, yes, it was really massive, really special,” he said. “It was the first step of the new war.” Operators rehearsed the attack three times to iron out issues such as drones jamming each other with their signals. Ukrainian officers and troops meticulously mapped the route each drone would take.
As the early-morning assault began, Ukrainian soldiers knelt in the snow to unpack five unmanned ground vehicles at different spots, some several miles away from the front line, to prevent crossed signals.
First-person-view drones, or FPVs—including one with a mounted assault rifle, many that dropped munitions and several dozen providing surveillance and reconnaissance—joined them as they approached enemy lines, according to a brigade spokesman, who declined to give specifics on numbers and types.
Land drones traveled with an aerial drone escort to amplify their signal and provide a bird’s-eye view for the ground vehicle’s operator. “If you are looking from a camera on the land drone, you’re looking out at the height of your knee,” said a lieutenant who goes by the call sign Happy.
When the signal between the land drone and its eyes in the sky failed, another drone filled the breach.
The land drones’ main enemy: mud. Footage of the attack shows the vehicles sometimes were bogged down or had to navigate obstacles on the ground. When one drone was in the quagmire it held others up. Land drones typically face more obstacles than those in the air or on the water. They need to negotiate buildings and get across uneven terrain without losing connection. And while big arms makers have tested land drones, or UGVs, for decades, the U.S. and its allies haven’t deployed them in a meaningful way.
In Ukraine, UGVs have had a more limited impact than their aerial and naval counterparts, said Tamiris Pereira dos Santos, a land platforms analyst at the defense-intelligence company Janes.
But “what the deployment of UGVs in Ukraine has done is to catalyze testing and experimentation of these platforms for other armed forces and larger manufacturers,” he said.
On a recent morning, Happy demonstrated a Chinese-made robot dog he wants to use for surveillance, given its stealth and ability to maneuver over logs and other obstacles. The Dutch minister of defense, Ruben Brekelmans, along with his country’s senior military personnel, visited the brigade in October.
“It sometimes felt like being at a tech startup, but operating from a shelter,” Brekelmans said in an email. “It demonstrated how modern wars are fought.”
Ukraine, the U.S. and other countries are working on artificial-intelligence programs, including so-called swarming technology, which will allow aerial drones to coordinate among themselves. But the December operation still needed exact coordination between different command posts operated by human soldiers.
Footage showed operators hunched over consoles in bunkers with banks of large screens relaying footage of the action.
As the land drones neared their targets, UAVs provided backup. Then the robot wars began. Russian FPV drones appeared, launching themselves at the land vehicles, according to the footage. One came close to destroying a land drone, which fired back at the Russian line with a mounted machine gun. Happy, the Ukrainian lieutenant, remembers seeing footage from aerial drones showing the snow pockmarked by the blasts from Russian attack UAVs.While it is unclear from the footage how successful the attack was, the spokesman said Ukrainian troops found Russian corpses when they moved in to take over the position.
The operation was also an opportunity to learn for Kopach, the land drone specialist. “It gave us understanding on how we needed to modify the drones,” he said, adding that they needed to improve the suspension systems.
After the attack, mechanics at one of the brigade’s engineering depots were working on 10 domestically produced UGVs recently. The vehicles ranged from an exploding drone—a foot long and a foot wide, able to carry nearly 90 pounds of explosives—to a one-ton UGV for detonating mines.
When working on land drones, Kopach, who was set to begin a doctorate program in math at a U.S. university before the war broke out, studied the rover NASA used on Mars, with a particular focus on its wheels.
But, he said, “On Mars you don’t have water and mud, and Russian FPVs.”
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