Latest news with #UGV
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Yahoo
Flamethrower robots are now officially a part of Ukraine's war
Ukraine has approved a new ground-based drone, which fires thermobaric rounds, for combat use. It's now one of 80 uncrewed ground vehicles codified by the military to fight in the war. The Krampus is a tracked UGV meant to carry multiple RPV-16 launchers on rough terrain. Ukraine's defense ministry has officially approved what it described as a flamethrower robot for its military units. The Krampus, a locally invented uncrewed ground vehicle, now joins more than 80 other supported ground drone designs that Kyiv's forces can use, the ministry said in a statement on Monday. The ministry said the remotely piloted vehicle is equipped with RPV-16 rounds, which are rocket-propelled thermobaric rounds originally designed by Ukraine to be fired from a portable launcher by infantry. Built to "perform assault and defensive missions" against infantry and light armor, the Krampus is a tracked UGV that runs on two silent motors and can fit in the back of a pickup truck, the ministry added. According to the statement, its controls are jam-resistant and designed to withstand cold, heat, snow, and rain. It's also supposed to effectively cross off-road terrain such as thick forest, sand, swamps, and steep inclines. "The platform's battery capacity allows for several hours of continuous movement. Thanks to this, it can remain in position for extended periods in standby mode," the statement said. The ministry didn't specify the drone's operational range or ammo capacity. Photos of the Krampus appear to show a tracked platform with a video camera that can fit four RPV-16 launchers. These launchers are typically single-use, so it's likely the Krampus can fire four times before having to be resupplied. Authorization by the defense ministry can be important for how widely a drone is used, since Ukrainian weapons manufacturing and innovation are dispersed across the country. As the war rages, various firms and military units work simultaneously on their own battlefield tech and often share them with each other. Official approval means Ukrainian forces can use their budgets to purchase the Krampus UGV. Their heavier frames offer more deployment options than a typical flying drone, such as carrying larger explosive payloads for attack missions, evacuating the wounded as a last resort, or clearing mines. "These drones allow us to replace infantry soldiers on the battlefield," Oleksandr Chernyavskiy, an enlisted soldier who helps with fundraising in the 241st Territorial Defense Brigade's drone prototyping team, told Business Insider of UGVs like the Krampus. His own brigade has created a similar tracked UGV with mounted belt-fed machine guns that he says runs on an operational range of 20 km. Typically, such assault UGVs fly in tandem with aerial drones that can help them scout for mines, traps, and targets, Chernayavskiy said. "It appeared to be quite effective in some kind of operations, like against well-equipped positions and traps," Chernayavskiy said of his brigade's weapons-mounted UGVs. "Usually, it's been used remotely without our infantry nearby." Ukraine has set a goal of fielding 15,000 UGVs on the battlefield by the end of the year. Read the original article on Business Insider
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ukrainian soldier says ground robots are great for attacks because they carry far more explosive power than flying drones
Ukraine drives robots packed with explosives at Russian positions and blows them up. The robots can carry much more explosives than aerial drones, a Ukrainian soldier told BI. His unit sent a robot with 66 pounds of explosives into a basement and killed Russian infantry. Ukrainian soldiers use ground robots to blow up Russian troops and equipment. These carry a far heavier explosive payload than drones that fly. Operators control these uncrewed ground vehicles, or UGVs, remotely. The UGVs can travel close to Russian positions, assuming they're not spotted, and detonate. And Ukraine's soldiers can stay safe and far from the action. They are a lot like flying drones, but the systems pack a greater punch because they don't take flight. Oleksandr Yabchanka, the head of the robotic systems for Ukraine's Da Vinci Wolves Battalion, told Business Insider that Ukraine's soldiers attach bombs and explosives to ground robots, "turning that system into a kamikaze one." The UGV actions mirror what has been done with aerial drones in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, where the flying drones explode and drop grenades. "A crucial difference between aerial and on-the-ground unmanned systems is the mass that they can carry," Yabchanka said. He said Ukraine needs to "always be one step, half a step ahead of the enemy in terms of the powers of destruction." That's where these ground drones come into play. He said that while the biggest aerial drones can carry mines that weigh 22 pounds each, the smallest ground robots that he works with can take more than 48 pounds. On average, they can carry much more. He said that just a few hours before he spoke with Business Insider, his unit sent a ground robot carrying 66 pounds of explosives into a basement held by Russia, where it eliminated Russian infantry. Ukraine's soldiers work with a host of drone types linked to do a wide range of work. There are small airborne drones for tactical action ranging from recon to strike and larger aerial uncrewed systems used to hit targets inside Russian territory. There are also naval drones that target ships in the Black Sea, and then there are the UGVs, which can deal damage and carry out missions like casualty evac. Yabchanka said the growing ground robot technology allows Ukrainian troops to massively amplify their firepower without having to put more soldiers in harm's way. That's key when they're fighting at a disadvantage against Russia's much larger military army. He said that roughly 80% of Russians killed in battle are killed by uncrewed systems. The other 20% is mostly artillery — at the start of the war, it was the opposite. Aerial drones are responsible for most of the drone kills because of how prolific they are. More ground robots could mean a major firepower boost for Ukrainian forces. "Imagine how much more powerful we could be if we could bring twice as much explosives to the front line as we do now," Yabchanka said. Unlike the quadcopters, this technology isn't widely available to all units yet, but where it is being used, UGVs are evacuating wounded soldiers, firing into Russian positions with mounted weapons, carrying gear, laying mines, exploding inside enemy positions, and spying on the Russians, and more. This is a technology that Russia is developing too. Yabchanka said that the question is: who will do it faster? There's an effort on both sides of the war to advance this technology. The dynamic echoes the drone race that Ukraine and Russia are both currently locked in, with both sides developing new drones and counter-drone measures to defeat the other side's drone tech, as well as rushing to make as many drones as possible. Yabchanka said Ukraine and its partners need to constantly innovate to keep coming out with new ground robot upgrades and improvements to other military technology. It's something that requires consistent innovation, as "what was up to date and relevant half a year ago is not up to date and relevant anymore," he said. He said they are developing so fast that they are getting upgraded on the actual front lines — with soldiers sometimes making tweaks themselves or calling the manufacturer directly to make a request for changes and upgrades to future drones. Yabchanka called for much greater European involvement in making this type of technology, saying that "whatever is required on our end is at your service." Europe, like the US, has given Ukraine billions of dollars in military aid, but Ukraine has increasingly made more and more of its own weaponry as it looks to innovate faster, create weaponry that is designed for a fight with Russia, and overcome shortages in Western aid cause by delays and political debate. Ukraine has become a pioneer in the development of certain types of weaponry, and European leaders and defense ministers have acknowledged that there are lessons Europe's defense industries can learn from Ukraine, particularly on drones, as they warn Russia could attack their countries. Yabchanka said that Europe also has "more resources than Russia," making deepening cooperation a win-win. He urged European industry and leaders to get onboard. "The manufacturers, developers, military personnel all stand ready for cooperation. Just come along; we'll deliver training and whatever else is necessary." Read the original article on Business Insider
Business Insider
09-05-2025
- Business Insider
Ukrainian soldier says ground robots are great for attacks because they carry far more explosive power than flying drones
Ukrainian soldiers use ground robots to blow up Russian troops and equipment. These carry a far heavier explosive payload than drones that fly. Operators control these uncrewed ground vehicles, or UGVs, remotely. The UGVs can travel close to Russian positions, assuming they're not spotted, and detonate. And Ukraine's soldiers can stay safe and far from the action. They are a lot like flying drones, but the systems pack a greater punch because they don't take flight. Oleksandr Yabchanka, the head of the robotic systems for Ukraine's Da Vinci Wolves Battalion, told Business Insider that Ukraine's soldiers attach bombs and explosives to ground robots, "turning that system into a kamikaze one." The UGV actions mirror what has been done with aerial drones in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, where the flying drones explode and drop grenades. "A crucial difference between aerial and on-the-ground unmanned systems is the mass that they can carry," Yabchanka said. He said Ukraine needs to "always be one step, half a step ahead of the enemy in terms of the powers of destruction." That's where these ground drones come into play. Packing a much bigger punch He said that while the biggest aerial drones can carry mines that weigh 22 pounds each, the smallest ground robots that he works with can take more than 48 pounds. On average, they can carry much more. He said that just a few hours before he spoke with Business Insider, his unit sent a ground robot carrying 66 pounds of explosives into a basement held by Russia, where it eliminated Russian infantry. Ukraine's soldiers work with a host of drone types linked to do a wide range of work. There are small airborne drones for tactical action ranging from recon to strike and larger aerial uncrewed systems used to hit targets inside Russian territory. There are also naval drones that target ships in the Black Sea, and then there are the UGVs, which can deal damage and carry out missions like casualty evac. Yabchanka said the growing ground robot technology allows Ukrainian troops to massively amplify their firepower without having to put more soldiers in harm's way. That's key when they're fighting at a disadvantage against Russia's much larger military army. He said that roughly 80% of Russians killed in battle are killed by uncrewed systems. The other 20% is mostly artillery — at the start of the war, it was the opposite. Aerial drones are responsible for most of the drone kills because of how prolific they are. More ground robots could mean a major firepower boost for Ukrainian forces. "Imagine how much more powerful we could be if we could bring twice as much explosives to the front line as we do now," Yabchanka said. Unlike the quadcopters, this technology isn't widely available to all units yet, but where it is being used, UGVs are evacuating wounded soldiers, firing into Russian positions with mounted weapons, carrying gear, laying mines, exploding inside enemy positions, and spying on the Russians, and more. An uncrewed arms race This is a technology that Russia is developing too. Yabchanka said that the question is: who will do it faster? There's an effort on both sides of the war to advance this technology. The dynamic echoes the drone race that Ukraine and Russia are both currently locked in, with both sides developing new drones and counter-drone measures to defeat the other side's drone tech, as well as rushing to make as many drones as possible. Yabchanka said Ukraine and its partners need to constantly innovate to keep coming out with new ground robot upgrades and improvements to other military technology. It's something that requires consistent innovation, as "what was up to date and relevant half a year ago is not up to date and relevant anymore," he said. He said they are developing so fast that they are getting upgraded on the actual front lines — with soldiers sometimes making tweaks themselves or calling the manufacturer directly to make a request for changes and upgrades to future drones. Calling on Ukraine's partners Yabchanka called for much greater European involvement in making this type of technology, saying that "whatever is required on our end is at your service." Europe, like the US, has given Ukraine billions of dollars in military aid, but Ukraine has increasingly made more and more of its own weaponry as it looks to innovate faster, create weaponry that is designed for a fight with Russia, and overcome shortages in Western aid cause by delays and political debate. Ukraine has become a pioneer in the development of certain types of weaponry, and European leaders and defense ministers have acknowledged that there are lessons Europe's defense industries can learn from Ukraine, particularly on drones, as they warn Russia could attack their countries. Yabchanka said that Europe also has "more resources than Russia," making deepening cooperation a win-win. He urged European industry and leaders to get onboard. "The manufacturers, developers, military personnel all stand ready for cooperation. Just come along; we'll deliver training and whatever else is necessary."
Forbes
02-05-2025
- Forbes
Russia Is Making Explosive Drones Out Of Toy Hoverboards
A Russian hoverboard drone explodes. Via WarTranslated It suddenly makes sense why Russian troops in Ukraine were observed with a substantial number of toy hoverboards. A video montage that circulated online on Friday depicts the explosive ground robots—a pair of the two-wheeled hoverboards attached to an anti-tank mine—blowing up purported Ukrainian fortifications presumably somewhere along the 700-mile front line of Russia's 39-month wider war on Ukraine. Last summer, the Dva Mayora volunteer organization in Russia developed the hoverboard unmanned ground vehicles and began distributing copies to Russian units. Half a year later in February, Russians were seen loading a bunch of the $100 hoverboards into a truck somewhere at or near the front. It's possible they'd received them as donations from supporters back home—or stolen them from Ukrainian homes in the occupied zone. Regardless, it should be apparent now that most of the hoverboards along the front line aren't for riding—they're for making one-way explosive drones. Flying robots already dominate the battleground in Ukraine. The hundreds of thousands of tiny first-person-view drones Russian and Ukrainian forces deploy every month account for the majority of battlefield casualties—70 percent, according to The New York Times. By comparison, ground robots are less ubiquitous, and for obvious reasons. It's easier for a remote-controlled vehicle to fly unobstructed through the air than it is to crawl over rough terrain. Thanks to their internal gyroscopes, hoverboards are extremely stable compared to traditional wheeled vehicles. A hoverboard UGV can speed across the front-line terrain faster than other ground robots. And the low cost of the toys mean the mine-laden 'bots are expendable. No need for a regiment to save them for only the most valuable targets. That the Russians appear to be using their hoverboards to build exploding robots doesn't mean they won't eventually ride them into battle. It's worth noting the growing prevalence of surplus civilian electric scooters in the inventories of Russian regiments. After losing 17,000 armored vehicles and other heavy equipment in Ukraine, the Kremlin is growing truly desperate for battlefield transportation—and has sent troops on assaults on e-scooters, Lada compact cars, aging GAZ-69 trucks and at least one bus. If and when toy hoverboards become more valuable as assault vehicles than drone components, they too might join the war-scooters and compact cars. At least as an assault vehicle, a hoverboard stands some chance of surviving a battle. As an explosive drone, a hoverboard heads out exactly once.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
The Marines' unmanned ground vehicle will look a lot like the Army's
It's official: After several years of testing and experiments, the Marine Corps is sure it wants an unmanned ground vehicle. Speaking at the Modern Day Marine conference in Washington on Wednesday, Lt. Col. Scott Humr, the deputy for the Marines' Intelligent Robotics and Autonomous Systems program, said the Corps was now developing a requirements document for its multi-purpose UGV, though the timing of its publication was still to be determined. 'We see this as an important piece of how we envision robots working with robots,' Humr said. Marines want to add counter-drone weapon to amphibious vehicle In 2023, Marines from the 3rd Littoral Logistics Battalion in Hawaii teamed up with the Army and the South Korean government to try out a Korean UGV prototype, the Hanwha Arion-SMET, in a two-week foreign comparative test, an event officials said at the time marked 'a critical juncture in the Corps' exploration of advances unmanned technologies.' The test, which emphasized the UGV's artificial intelligence and machine learning capacity, also underscored the vehicle's value in contested environments, where rugged unmanned logistics platforms can decrease risk to warfighters and better ensure sustainment of combat operations. Separately, manufacturer Rheinmetall has provided the Marine Corps with autonomous UGVs equipped with remotely controlled weapons station turrets for testing purposes since 2023. The Marine Corps has shown interest in a robotic mule for transporting gear and weapons for over a decade, with early prototypes from the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab resembling an actual four-legged animal. But Humr said the solution the Corps was now falling in on would be close to the one already defined by the Army. The Army last year awarded contracts for Small Multipurpose Equipment Transports to American Rheinmetall Vehicles and HDT Expeditionary Systems, with officials saying they planned to award a production contract for more than 2,000 of the vehicles to one of the companies in fiscal 2027. 'A lot of the work they've done is like 90% of what we need. And so we're not going to reinvent the wheel, as it were,' Humr told Marine Corps Times. 'Now we just need to move out on developing the annexes, do the materiel change requests, and just start getting things out there.' Humr emphasized the family-of-systems approach the Marine Corps is now using to shape its unmanned platform acquisition strategy. 'We love to see [unmanned aerial vehicles interfacing with ground platforms and taking loads … containers, whatever, and leaving the Marine out of the loop, as it were, and delivering those systems autonomously,' he said. With counter-unmanned aerial systems protections bolted on and perimeter protection, he said, the vehicles should be able to operate independently near a combat operations center or further afield. 'I think those are going to be very critical for logistics, for sensing, for communications, [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] etc., logistics,' Humr said. 'We need to develop the requirement a little bit more and ensure that we get it out there quickly, and make sure we have the funding to support that as well. I think we'll get that.'
