2024-03-17 06:03:54
A “Themis” evacuates a soldier during a Ukrainian military exercise: The unmanned land vehicle can also be equipped for attack purposes.Image: imago-images.de
The Ukrainian army also wants to use mobile land robots in the fight against Russia. They should bring similar advantages to drones. But there is a catch.
17.03.2024, 07:0317.03.2024, 07:06
Alexander Schreiber / t-online
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Drones play a crucial role in the Ukraine war. Russian kamikaze drones, for example, are affecting Ukrainian cities. Individual examples of the small unmanned missiles repeatedly maneuver past the Ukrainian air defense and hit power plants and – all too often – the civilian population.
Above all, Russians and Ukrainians use drones on the front. For reconnaissance purposes, but especially for attacks on enemy positions with explosive charges. A real drone race has begun; The remote-controlled aircraft fly through the air in swarms above the front lines.
Ukraine is currently in danger of losing the race. This may be one reason why Kiev now wants to increasingly rely on drone-like weapons overland.
“The robots have proven successful on the training ground and will be on the battlefield in a few months.”
Mychajlo Fedorow
Was plant die Ukraine?
The Ukrainian Minister for Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, announced this week plans for the mass production of driving robots, also known in military jargon as “unmanned land vehicles”. The fundraising platform “United24”, launched by the Ukrainian government, announced that it would buy hundreds of these robots for the Ukrainian military.
“It is an asymmetrical response to the enemy’s numerical superiority,” Fedorov said. This means that the Russians may have more soldiers, but with the right military equipment, a single Ukrainian fighter can be just as effective as several Russians.
The robots could become just as crucial on the front as drones are currently, said the minister. “The robots have proven successful on the training ground and will be on the battlefield in a few months.”
The vehicles are also likely to be important for Ukraine because conventional warfare with artillery shells has stalled. The Ukrainian troops have been struggling with a lack of ammunition for months, and Western supporters are currently unable to keep up with their deliveries.
Which robots are already being used?
Both Russia and Ukraine are already using land robots on the front lines, albeit on a limited scale. The vehicles can be used in a variety of ways. There is scant information about exactly what the Ukrainian military uses them for. However, video and photo recordings show that the robots are laying mines and carrying out kamikaze attacks in which the vehicles equipped with explosive charges blow themselves up when they arrive at their destination.
The Ukrainian army is testing various land robots for military purposes.Image: United24 / u24.gov.ua
The Estonian weapons manufacturer Milrem Robotics delivered 14 copies of its Themis to Ukraine in 2022 with German financing. The tracked vehicle can evacuate soldiers, but can also be equipped with guns to carry out attacks.
According to Fedorov, the robots currently in development will be able to lay and defuse mines, carry out attacks and even evacuate injured soldiers. “United24” published photos of larger vehicles equipped with stretchers.
Toy cars and mini tanks
Unmanned land vehicles are not new. The Soviet Union used its teletanks for the first time during the Second World War. The radio-controlled vehicles were similar in shape and basic handling to modern land robots, but were significantly larger. Nazi Germany, in turn, brought the Goliath to the battlefield, which had a range of up to one and a half kilometers. With its two drive chains, the Goliath looked like a miniature tank.
Modern examples come in various designs, ranging from small, maneuverable vehicles that resemble remote-controlled toy cars to small tank-like vehicles. Artificial intelligence is also increasingly playing a role in the development of land robots.
An extremely small example of a land robot.Image: United24
Milrem Robotics recently launched a variant of the Themis equipped with a machine gun that automatically detects and fires on targets. A few months ago, Israel introduced Robust, a five-ton armored vehicle that maneuvers itself using similar software to that used in self-driving cars.
The problem: Land robots are more complex and more expensive
Ukraine hopes that the land robots will bring similar advantages to those that aerial drones bring with them. They make attacks on enemy positions possible without putting your own troops in the line of fire.
Frank Sauer, an expert in autonomous weapon systems from the Bundeswehr University in Munich, believes that Ukraine is an ideal area of operation for land robots. “The topography in parts of Ukraine with a lot of flat and little vegetated areas seems to me, unlike urban terrain, to be more favorable for the use of such drones,” Sauer recently told “Spiegel”.
But according to military experts, the development of land robots is significantly more complex and expensive than that of drones. This is partly because land is inherently a more difficult terrain to navigate than air. There are more obstacles, and the ground vehicles lack the bird’s eye view that drones have.
In Ukraine, the “Brave 1” technology cluster, which was founded last year, is working flat out on robot production. According to their own information, there are currently 140 different models in development, 96 of which have been successfully tested. These include not only vehicles, but also stationary, remote-controlled machine guns. Brave 1 is doing “everything to drive the production of robots,” said Minister Fedorov.
“This will help protect the lives and health of Ukrainian soldiers.”
Sources
(t-online/dsc)
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