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Russia has increasingly been trialing new types of ground drones as Ukraine’s robot war heats up.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
Designs include a “dronobus” for fiber optic drones, a chair on a buggy, and a box on wheels.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
Russian officials say they want to exponentially scale up ground combat drone production.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Ukraine’s drone industry has developed a wide array of new uncrewed ground vehicles<\/a>, but Russian forces are innovating with their own designs, too.<\/p>\n While Moscow has been testing remote ground-based weapons since the early years of the war, a wider variety of rudimentary \u2014 and sometimes unusual \u2014 designs have been emerging this summer.<\/p>\n Take, for example, a remote-controlled four-wheel buggy that pro-Russian Telegram channels called an “assault” Termit drone from a battalion of the 58th Guards Combined Arms Army.<\/p>\n Instead of a weapons system, it’s fitted with a chair that can accommodate a single soldier. Its rear can stow weapons, food, and water containers, the popular Russian Telegram channel Military Informant wrote in a post on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Notably, this Termit drone variant leaves the soldier completely exposed.<\/p>\n Another unique type of Russian logistics ground drone was recently filmed by a Ukrainian first-person-view drone<\/a>. A clip published on Sunday by Ukrainian drone crowdfunding activist Serhii Sternenko shows that the Russian design essentially featured an open box on wheels.<\/p>\n Sternenko wrote that the ground drone was destroyed and was transporting provisions near the front lines.<\/p>\n On Thursday, a Russian page dedicated to armor and artillery systems published schematics of a tracked, uncrewed multiple-launch rocket system that can fire 10 munitions at once.<\/p>\n The page, Bvtv.Info, wrote that the ground drone was being developed by a Moscow-based engineering firm.<\/p>\n The drone appears to resemble the TOS-1A, a Soviet multiple-launch rocket system mounted on a tank chassis and operated by a three-person crew. However, the TOS-1A features 30 barrels, triple that of the new drone.<\/p>\n Russian forces have also been experimenting with carrying explosives via remote-controlled hoverboards. One popular Russian military blogger, Two Majors<\/a>, published several clips in April of a ground drone built with two hoverboard scooters.<\/p>\n “They can be used as kamikaze vehicles, as vehicles with a smoke screen, as self-propelled observation vehicles, and even for demining,” the Telegram channel wrote, asking followers to donate such scooters to the Russian military.<\/p>\n Another Russian Telegram channel, Victory Drones, published images in May of similar ground drones fitted with TM-62 anti-tank mines.<\/p>\n “The main advantages of such drones are stability provided by gyroscopes and low cost, which makes it possible to use them on a mass scale,” it wrote.<\/p>\n Then there’s the “Dronobus.” On August 8, the Russian state news agency TASS published photos of a ground-based uncrewed vehicle that acts as a roving mothership for fiber optic attack drones<\/a>.<\/p>\n TASS wrote that Russian defense engineers are developing the Dronobus, which it reported can accommodate two fiber optic drones with 15-km cables.<\/p>\n Russian forces have been making new ground-based drones for years, such as a tracked platform with the Kornet anti-tank missile system that one unit said it tested in March 2023.<\/p>\n But the appearance of more varied designs comes as Moscow and Kyiv vie for any possible advantage with uncrewed ground vehicles.<\/p>\n In April, Russia’s defense minister Andrey Belousov said Russian firms and volunteer organizations had developed “several hundred ground robotic systems.”<\/p>\n “This year we plan to deliver an order of magnitude more,” Belousov said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Ukraine has been marshaling resources to develop its own new ground-based combat drones<\/a>, using them to fire at enemy positions, evacuate the wounded, gather intelligence, or drop explosives.<\/p>\n Dubbed “iron soldiers”<\/a> by Ukrainian officials, the use of such combat systems grows more critical as prolonged war strains Ukraine’s supply of fresh troops.<\/p>\n Ukraine says its soldiers are outnumbered three to one in favor of Russia.<\/p>\n Read the original article on Business Insider<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n