Archive: June 18, 2024

MBDA unveils AI-based Ground Warden tool for finding hidden targets

PARIS — The missile manufacturer MBDA has unveiled an artificial intelligence-based capability to allow military forces to see hidden targets in challenging combat environments.

The multinational firm presented its Ground Warden beyond line-of-sight technology here during the Eurosatory defense and security conference.

In one scenario presented by MBDA, a firing post is located above a village, concealed within hilly terrain. As an enemy target is detected from the shooter’s point of view, that data is relayed to a control system.

When the first missile is launched, it processes images in real time during its flight trajectory and before hitting the identified threat. That data is then fed to the new man-portable module, dubbed Ground Warden, and used to inform any subsequent missiles of concealed threats.

The Ground Warden is based on MBDA’s combat-proven Akeron anti-tank guided missile system and is the company’s answer to a “growing need for reactivity” in increasingly fast-paced combat.

A second simulation presented to reporters stemmed from an unmanned aerial vehicle’s perspective around an area heavily populated by trees, which company representatives said make it difficult for missiles to reach their targets.

This scenario was meant to show the Ground Warden can work alongside drones. In this context, the UAV can provide an overview and recording of the operational environment that it then relays to the AI module and command system. The Ground Warden can further provide insights to the gunner of where the target — in this case a tank — can be intercepted and when to fire.

MBDA makes a similarly named platform, the Sky Warden, which is a counter-drone system designed to control a large range of sensors and effectors.

Defense Innovation Unit seeks systems to counter Red Sea drone attacks

As Iran-backed Houthi rebel groups continue to use attack drones to target ships in the Red Sea, the U.S. Navy and the Defense Innovation Unit are partnering to prototype a counter uncrewed aircraft system that can disable or shoot them down.

The Navy is looking for a system it can easily integrate with a range of platforms to defend against such adversary drone attacks, DIU said June 14. The program, dubbed Counter NEXT, aims to quickly test prototypes and field them on vessels around the globe.

“It is expected that solutions will be capable of expeditious worldwide deployment, integrated with a variety of naval platforms and must display the ability to be easily integrated into the existing sensors onboard a naval vessel,” DIU said in a statement.

Since last fall, Iran-backed groups have used drones, uncrewed surface vessels and anti-ship ballistic vehicles to launch dozens of attacks on U.S., allied and commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea. The incidents have disrupted global trade in key waterways and killed three merchant sailors.

According to a June 13 report from the Defense Intelligence Agency, 65 countries and 29 major energy and shipping companies have been affected or have had to alter their routes in response to these aggressions.

“The growing threat of adversarial unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) poses significant risks to U.S., allied and partner forces, naval vessels, and commercial vessels transiting key maritime routes across the globe,” DIU said. “The U.S. is committed to protecting commercial maritime trade and, more importantly, service members conducting maritime operations in contested environments.”

DIU has a portfolio dedicated to leveraging commercial and off-the-shelf technology to defend against these types of drone threats. Matthew Way, who leads that effort, said counter UAS is a high priority for the organization, adding that DIU plans to use a portion of the $800 million budget increase Congress provided in fiscal 2024 to fund efforts like Counter Next.

“We’ve really got to focus on, how do we get after those more advanced capabilities . . . and how do we protect ourselves from adversarial threats that are employing this technology as well,” he said during Applied Intuition’s June 13 Nexus conference in Washington, DC.

Pentagon officials have emphasized that defending against enemy drones will require a layered approach, including electronic warfare and kinetic effects.

Counter Next is focused on kinetic systems that cost less than a traditional missile or air defeat system and rely on mature technology that can be ready for testing within 90 days of a contract award. And while it’s not required, DIU may prioritize proposals that demonstrate the ability to take out surface vessel threats.

Companies must also be able to deliver at least five systems within 12 months of being selected.

How many F-35s to buy? Draft defense bills disagree

The Senate’s proposed National Defense Authorization Act would leave the military’s planned purchases of 68 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters in fiscal 2025 unchanged.

The chamber’s draft NDAA, which members of the Senate Armed Services Committee unveiled Friday, represents the latest of three different approaches lawmakers are taking to F-35 purchases for next year, which must be reconciled at some point.

The Air Force’s FY25 budget proposal requested money to buy 42 F-35As, and the Navy and Marine Corps budgets would buy 13 F-35Bs and 13 F-35Cs.

The House’s version of the NDAA would drastically slash F-35 purchases, cutting the initial order down to 58. That bill, which the House narrowly approved Friday, would then bar the Pentagon from accepting delivery of 10 of those remaining jets until it shows problems with the F-35 are fixed.

But the House’s proposed defense appropriations bill, a separate piece of legislation, would add eight more F-35s — two F-35A and six F-35C jets — for a total of 76 new fighters in FY25.

House Armed Services Committee staffers said members of the panel “have grown frustrated with the F-35 program,” most recently with the delayed Technology Refresh 3 upgrades. The TR-3 hardware and software upgrades, which will give the F-35 better displays, computer memory and processing power, are now about a year overdue, and the military has refused to accept delivery of the newest jets since July 2023.

This led the committee to propose cutting F-35 purchases in the House NDAA and reinvesting the roughly $1 billion that would save to ensure the jets work properly.

The Senate NDAA would also grant the Air Force’s request to retire 56 A-10 Warthog attack planes, 65 older F-15C and F-15D Eagle fighters, and 11 F-16 Fighting Falcons. But it would block the service’s effort to retire 26 F-15Es and 32 F-22 Raptors.

The House NDAA likewise would allow the A-10, F-15C, F-15D and F-16 requirements, while blocking the retirement of the F-22s and temporarily pausing the F-15E retirements.

The Air Force said those older Block 20 F-22s are not combat-capable and would cost too much to prepare for a fight. The service therefore wants to retire them to free up money for other priorities.

And the Senate NDAA would require the Air Force to hold onto 16 E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control system aircraft until they can be replaced by the Boeing-made E-7, or until the service can retire the E-3s without causing a capability gap.

The Senate NDAA would also add money for the Air Force to buy five more HH-60W combat rescue helicopters, while reducing funding for the Survivable Airborne Operations Center “doomsday plane” and the VC-25B Air Force One due to contract delays. A program to expand the C-40 VIP transportation aircraft fleet would also have its funding cut.

The Senate draft also calls on the Air Force to submit an annual report on its tactical fighter force structure, and for the Air Force and Navy to jointly conduct a study on the military’s future air superiority mission in the 2030s and 2040s. The two services are working on their own future fighter aircraft they each call Next Generation Air Dominance, which could start to come online beginning in the 2030s.

Hezbollah-launched missiles hit Israeli military vehicle factory

JERUSALEM — Missiles launched by Hezbollah hit an Israeli defense factory last week, according to the Lebanon-based militant group.

The Plasan firm makes vehicle-protection products and components, and it also operates factories in France and the United States. The company reports that a large majority of its wares are exported to the U.S. military.

Hezbollah claimed that at least two of its missiles on Wednesday morning hit the Plasan facility located in Sasa, which is about 2 miles from the Israeli border with Lebanon.

Defense News contacted the Defense Ministry as well as Israel Defense Forces reservist Col. Moshe Elazar, who serves as the CEO of Plasan. They declined to comment for this story. However, Rami Ziv, the secretary of the Sasa community, told Defense News that the factory is fully operational, but would not provide further details.

The Israel Tax Authority, which is responsible for compensating private and business property damaged as a result of warfare, also would not comment, citing confidentiality baked into taxation laws.

Plasan has partnered with Oshkosh Corp. for the production of the M-ATV, a mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle chosen to replace the Humvee. The U.S. Army previously ordered Oshkosh-made vehicles for its operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Earlier this week, a group of pro-Palestinian activists filmed themselves breaking into the facility of an Elbit Systems subsidiary in Kent, England. According to the footage, the group vandalized the Instro Precision property. Elbit declined to comment.

Israel is currently fighting a war against the Gaza-based militant group Hamas, while battling Hezbollah in the north.

Hanwha eyes Norway, Sweden for rocket artillery sales

PARIS – Hanwha Aerospace sees opportunities to sell its K239 Chunmoo rocket artillery system to Norway and Sweden, with short delivery time and price giving it an edge over competitors, the company said at the Eurosatory defense show in Paris on Monday.

The South Korean defense firm is displaying its multiple rocket launch system in Europe for the first time in response to interest from several countries in the region in long-range rocket system. Hanwha faces competition from Elbit Systems’ PULS, as well as the GMARS MLRS presented by Rheinmetall and Lockheed Martin on Monday.

Meanwhile, French firms Safran and Thales are developing competing proposals in response to a French demand for a rocket system.

“Norway is one of the major markets we’re looking at, Sweden would maybe follow,” Junheun Lee, a Warsaw-based senior manager for business development at Hanwha, told Defense News. “They would want delivery before 2030, and we can definitely do that.

”Hanwha would be able to delivery each country a battalion-sized batch of 16 to 18 Chunmoo launchers by 2030, according to the company manager. Norway may make a decision by the end of the year or early next year, while Sweden would follow later, as the country hasn’t yet budgeted for buying a rocket artillery system.

The Netherlands, Denmark and Spain have bought the PULS. Germany has also said it plans to order the Israeli system, though Rheinmetall and Lockheed Marketing are targeting the German market with GMARS, an upgraded version of the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS,

Hanwha’s open architecture is another selling point in addition to delivery time and price, with countries able to use their own chassis for the launcher if they so desire, as has been the case with Poland and which might be the case for Nordic buyers, according to Junheun Lee. Poland has signed contracts to buy 288 units of the Homar-K, a Polish version of Hanwha’s MLRS.

Hanwha says its rocket artillery can fire munitions including a 239mm rocket with a range of 80 kilometers and a 280mm rocket that can reach targets 160 km away, as well as a 290mm ballistic missile with a maximum range of 290 km. The company plans to integrate 122mm unguided rockets for Poland.

The Korean company said on Friday it’s considering setting up a “user club” for the system to share experiences and best practices. The company isn’t facing any issues with component supplies, with 95% of the Chunmoo manufactured domestically in South Korea.

Latvia-led drone coalition for Ukraine gains more funding, members

PARIS — The international coalition to supply drones to Ukraine has received almost $600 million in commitments from Western allies, with Italy and France being the latest countries to join the alliance, the Latvian minister of defense said.

The four-month old initiative, which was born in mid-February and now counts 14 participating nations, outlined an ambition to deliver at least one million unmanned aerial vehicle systems to the embattled country.

“The caveat in this goal is to specify that while, yes, quantity is important, so is providing quality systems – so with this number we aren’t only talking about providing one type of drone but the full spectrum of them, including electronic warfare and counter capabilities,” Latvian Defense Minister Andris Spruds said during a panel at the Eurosatory trade show here.

According to the official, the drone alliance has received over €500 million euros ($590 million) in international pledges, which he expects will increase further in the future.

Spruds added that the coalition, which is spearheaded by his home country and the U.K., recently gained two new members – Italy and France – following a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.

On a national level, Baltic states have accelerated their drone procurement and training programs, with a special focus on first-person-view types, which have come to dominate the battlefield in Ukraine.

“FPV drones are a game-changer for the current and future battlefield – the most expensive pieces of equipment will be destroyed by these cheaper drones,” Linas Idzelis, Commander of Lithuania’s Riflemen’s Union, a paramilitary non-profit organization supported by the Lithuanian government, told the audience.

The officer said that the country is currently training roughly 6,000 cadets on how to use these cost-effective weapons, with a teaching course taking about 60 hours to complete.

According to Arunas Kumpis, a volunteer soldier in Ukraine who also operates FPV drones, one team typically launches between 30 and 35 of these systems daily to hit assigned targets.

The soldier detailed the usual setup of three-person FPV teams in Ukraine, which hide in concealed and entrenched locations such as bunkers and can operate up to 100 meters away from antennas.

These platforms have proven to be a headache for armored vehicles near the frontlines in recent weeks, with reports that the threat even led U.S. officials to request that donated Abrams main battle tanks no longer be deployed to these areas.

“If armored vehicles are 10-15 kilometers from the frontlines many of these drones can generally hit them – you need to move fast as FPVs have a fast reaction time, around one minute to start, and ten minutes to fly to a target,” Kumpis said.

Battle tank concepts mushroom at Paris arms show

PARIS — If Europeans fail to pull off a common next-generation battle tank design, it will not have been for a lack of ideas.

Industry members KNDS and Rheinmetall each presented new concepts here touting major improvements to existing tank fleets, keenly aware that the fluid schedule of the Franco-German Main Ground Combat System could be decades away from fielding a weapon.

KNDS — the joint venture of Germany’s Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and France’s Nexter — unveiled the Leopard 2 A-RC 3.0 at a brief ceremony, where development head Axel Scheibel diplomatically spoke of the “slightly delayed” marquee program between Berlin and Paris. “We have to have a next-gen tank” before that, he told reporters.

Envisioned features include a weight savings of 10% over the 60-plus-ton Leopard 2. Engineers hope to achieve this through cascading modifications that include a new gun design, which enables the relocation of the three-person crew more deeply into the protected chassis, thereby saving on armor weight spent on protecting personnel located further up in the tank.

The linchpin of the idea is a main gun movable on two pivot points, causing the barrel to rest level above the chassis at all time, obviating the need to account for dead space from the cannon’s back swinging around, Scheibel explained.

The company envisions a choice of 120mm-, 130mm- or 140mm-caliber guns, incorporating a trend toward larger projectiles for longer range and heftier kinetic punch.

A new munition delivery system is also part of the concept, borrowing from soda bottle distributors the idea of cubed storage containers that can feed three initial rounds to the barrel within 10 seconds, Scheibel said.

With the gun and turret concept complete, KNDS plans to unveil a fully functioning demonstrator at the Eurosatory show in 2026, spending the time until then fleshing out the chassis design, Scheibel said. The company has already driven and fired the A-RC 3.0 tank in a testable configuration and presented the design to the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr, he added.

The collection of modifications can be applied to existing Leopard 2 tanks, which is where much of the market is expected to lie in the future, Scheibel told reporters. “It’s not tricky,” he said, because the two-pivot cannon design enables something of a clean-slate approach for tweaking the rest of the system.

Meanwhile, KNDS presented a development version of the French Leclerc tank fitted with a 120mm Ascalon gun, with a barrel that can be swapped out to fire 140mm munitions. KNDS France has already tested the system, with the barrel switch taking about 25 minutes, according to Francois Groshany, who runs tracked armor programs at the French arm of the company.

The Leclerc Evolution tank is proposed as a new build. And while existing Leclerc platforms could potentially be refitted, “that’s a question of economics,” Groshany told reporters during a walk around KNDS France’s offering Monday. The French tank is meant to complement the Leopard 2 offering rather than compete with it “to address markets for which the Leopard isn’t relevant.”

The company sees realistic possibilities to find buyers, “otherwise we wouldn’t launch it,” Groshany said, adding that there’s a market for hundreds of main battle tanks in the next 10 to 15 years.

The Ascalon cannon’s capabilities will be able to go “well beyond” those of the current generation of 120mm guns, with the company targeting an energy impact on the target of at least 10 megajoules. The Leclerc upgrade is proposed with a 22-round autoloader in a two-person turret, with a two-person chassis including the deputy commander. Armament would also include a 30mm gun for anti-drone purposes, plus a launcher for loitering munitions.

Rheinmetall, which managed to pull off a big splash at the Eurosatory 2022 iteration with the surprise introduction of its Panther KF51 tank, presented yet another model on Monday. An unmanned turret, the company said, will enable the crew to sit lower in the protected chassis and provide 25 “ready rounds” for the 130mm main gun.

Bjoern Bernhard, the company’s head of vehicle systems in Europe, introduced the development amid what he called the “the obvious postponement” of the Franco-German Main Ground Combat System program. “We’ve seen that MGCS is not getting ahead as planned,” he said.

Charles Beaudouin, a retired major general and former head of the French Army’s equipment office who now runs Eurosatory as CEO of COGES Events, lauded the level of activity here surrounding tank technology.

“I myself am surprised,” he told Defense News. “In my opinion, as a former officer, the groundswell is much more important than we think. It’s not an adaptation, it’s a transformation of European armed forces.”

Israel revives trebuchet, a catapult variant forces are using at border

JERUSALEM — An Israeli military mission to uncover Hezbollah combat positions and hidden cross-border routes has brought an ancient technology back to life, according to an expert and footage from the country’s northern border.

Photos and video uploaded to social media show reservists with the Israel Defense Forces operating a trebuchet, a catapult-type tool used in the Middle Ages, throwing fireballs over the concrete barrier separating Israel from Lebanon.

Reservists who recently spoke to the Israeli press on the condition of anonymity said they had been using the weapon since October with the purpose of revealing hidden militant positions and infiltration routes in the thicket bushes near the border. On Oct. 7, the Gaza-based militant group Hamas launched a fatal attack on Israel and took people hostage, with the Israeli government in turn launching a war against the organization in the southern territory.

Guy Stiebel a military archeology expert at Tel Aviv University, who specializes in military archeology and gives lectures as part of an IDF program, said he knows the soldier who helped built the trebuchet and confirmed to Defense News the use of the tool.

“There is a whole field in archeology called experimental archeology, which restores and builds tools such as the trebuchet for research purposes” Stiebel noted. “Among the IDF reserves there is an expert on the period and on this kind of weaponry used then, who found a solution to meet the goals set by his command.”

The weapon’s purpose is to launch beyond fortifications, like that separating the neighboring countries, which Stiebel said can reach 7-9 meters (23-30 feet).

“The trebuchet shown in the pictures is not a particularly large model of the ancient instrument, and its throwing distances were of up [to] about 50 or 60 meters,” he added. “It should be noted that advanced technology cannot always provide solutions, but although there are ancient simple ones that can do the job like the trebuchet, the latter was not been adopted by the Israeli Artillery Corps.”

When contacted by Defense News, the IDF did not deny the existence of the trebuchet nor its use by reservists in the north, but it also declined to comment on the topic.

Aselsan CEO Akyol talks export strategy, embargoes, air defense

Aselsan was the 47th-largest defense company in the world in 2023, according to Defense News’ Top 100 list, which ranks firms by their defense revenue. The company also set a new export record in 2023 with new contract of $601 million for 30 different countries

Ahmet Akyol took the helm of the company in June 2023 from Mr. Haluk Güngör who was appointment as the President of Defense Industry Agency.

Prior to Eurosatory 2024, which began in Paris on June 17, Akyol talked to Defense News about the future of Aselsan.

How does Aselsan drive to localize production clash with your goal to expand into more export markets?

Localization is not a contradiction but rather a supporter for our goal to expand in the global market. Our engineering capability and research and development activities are based on developing high-technology products with domestic resources. With domestic resources we reduce import costs from abroad which gives us the possibility to be more cost effective in some areas in the global market.

Aselsan represents Turkey in the world with independent defense technologies on many platforms and systems today with its localization activities in order to reduce external dependence and supply risks in the defense industry, and it can offer many products that cannot be obtained from outside due to embargoes to its users.

Which products do you plan to highlight for an export-oriented growth strategy? Which markets, globally, do you aim to focus on?

We have established offices and subsidiaries in 16 countries and accelerated our efforts to access new markets and expand in these markets. With the establishment of our new offices in Poland, Chile, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in 2023, our presence in many countries around the world has been sustainably enhanced.

We are selecting our target countries according to the regions that we prioritize. We have determined Saudi Arabia, Qatar and United Arab Emirates in Middle East; Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines in the Pacific region; North African countries, especially Egypt and Algeria in Africa; and east European countries, especially Poland and Romania as our focal points.

Aselsan stands out with its naval systems in the Pacific region, whereas it has become focus of attention in South America with the tank modernization project it has undertaken in Chile. We aim to expand our presence in Middle East with the solutions we present in the field of air defense and by closely monitoring ongoing potential projects in this region. We are also proud to demonstrate our engineering power with the systems we provide to Eastern Europe with other Turkish platform producers.

What are your plans to accelerate the process of transitioning from research and development to the final product?

Aselsan has recently launched an integrated roadmap that lays out our technology and product plans and shows how they are interrelated, over spanning multiple years. This helps us to assess how each research-and-development project ties into the products we want to introduce to the market. We have also developed an internal roadmap management system to monitor progress. This lets us track the roadmap progress in monthly basis and act quickly if any big divergence is spotted.

This roadmap ensures that progress aligns with strategic goals, keeping pace with the evolving needs of customers and stakeholders. This approach ensures readiness and adaptability in a rapidly changing technological landscape.

In addition, we incorporate product prospects throughout the course of our R&D projects. Right from the start, we require commercialization plans to ensure each project has a strong market potential. Commercialization is a key factor on how we evaluate the success of our R&D efforts.

This year we have initiated 4 important investments valued over $400 million for the mass production in the area of following systems: FLIR cameras, air defense systems, micro-electronic and AESA radars.

How does Aselsan plan to position itself in air defense systems, specifically, in international markets?

Our KORKUT Air Defence Gun System is one of our most remarkable air defense systems which we will exhibit also during Eurosatory 2024. This system will be showcased for the first time integrated on an 8×8 vehicle in an international exhibition. The system is already in the inventory of Turkish Armed Forces integrated on tracked vehicle configuration, however depending on the operational requirements of our clients KORKUT system could be provided as stationary, integrated on tracked vehicle and integrated on 8×8 vehicle configurations.

GÜRZ, our multipurpose short- and very-short-range, autonomous air and missile defense system is designed to endure and perform in severe environments. One of its key operational concepts is to perform an effective air and missile defense task alongside mobile units and in the transport of valuable elements. Moreover, it is to remark that the system exhibits effective air and missile defense against low-cost targets such as kamikaze drones.

We have also developed GÖKKUBE, a ground-based air defense system, to counter existing air threats, including rockets, artillery and mortars.

What are the key challenges in the Turkish National Aircraft program Aselsan is facing?

Developing avionics, radars, and sensors for a fifth-generation fighter aircraft involves numerous challenges. These include ensuring advanced stealth capabilities, enabling high data processing, and ensuring compatibility with current and future systems while keeping up with rapidly evolving technology. The Turkish National Aircrafts advanced payloads, such as radar, electronic warfare, electro-optics, communication, and navigation subsystems, are designed to meet these demanding requirements.

A key component of this program is the MURAD-100A AESA Nose Radar. This Multi-Purpose AESA Airborne Radar was initially developed for the indigenous F-16 Upgrade Program ÖZGÜR and the AKINCI high-altitude long-endurance unmanned combat aerial vehicle. MURAD-100A excels in air-to-air, air-to-ground, and SAR screening, thanks to its advanced AESA technology.

One of the main challenges in developing the MURAD-100A was fitting it into the constricted nose cone of the F-16 and AKINCI. The radar’s modules feature unprecedented density levels, and cooling these high-powered modules was another significant hurdle. Comprehensive thermal and mechanical design studies were conducted alongside RF and digital design, test, and verification processes to overcome these challenges. Flight tests on unmanned combat aerial vehicles and F-16s have yielded exceptional results, and preparations for the radar’s serial production are underway.

Robot craze in Russia-Ukraine war shines light on their drawbacks

MILAN — Despite the notable lineup and exploits of crude ground robots seen whizzing over the battlefield in Ukraine, experts say deploying them in combat remains a costly affair in terms of labor and their vulnerabilities.

Since the appearance of a Russian unmanned ground vehicle, or UGV, in Ukraine in April 2022, several new prototypes have popped up across the battlefield.

The robot craze has seemingly engulfed both Russia and Ukraine, as evidenced by the former’s plan to make them an integral part of its military and the latter’s intention to create an army of robots. But the popularity of such systems predates the war by several years.

“Prior to its invasion of Ukraine, the Russian military was one of the global leaders in UGV research, development and evaluation. It developed multiple types and started trialing them, but did so in a very limited format,” according to Samuel Bendett, a Russia defense expert at the U.S.-based Center for Naval Analyses think tank. “It likely did not have enough time to develop tactics and concepts for integrating larger UGV numbers and types into combined arms formations.”

For its part, Ukraine approved the use of ground robots in military operations in 2016, but some limitations regarding their deployment have persisted, according to Serhii Kuzan, a former adviser to the Ukrainian Defence Ministry.

The two main issues he identified relate to the lack of higher numbers of UGVs present in military units and their vulnerability to different Russian countermeasures.

“Currently, the main problem is the relatively low saturation of such unmanned systems in Ukrainian units, but it is worth noting here that no European army could at the moment fully meet the needs for these robotic platforms,” said Kuzan, who is now the chairman of the analytics organization Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center.

UGVs are as much of a target for enemy drones as are crewed armored vehicles, he added, except that the robots are also highly vulnerable to Russia’s electronic warfare tools.

Given the number of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance drones flying above the battlefield, developing larger “pre-February 2022 UGV types is a costly affair,” Bendett said, referring to the month Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Another factor constraining the use of robots in combat is the absence of fully autonomous navigation in many platforms, hence the necessity for additional equipment dedicated to their protection.

“As there is no truly autonomous UGV yet that can navigate itself to [a] target, the vehicle’s remote control today is also aided by drones providing tactical overwatch, helping to guide it towards intended destinations in logistics, supply and evacuation operations,” Bendett said.

This makes sending out these vehicles “very manpower-intensive,” he added.

Despite these limitations, there are many examples of the effective use of such systems by Ukrainian forces. Experts agree Western countries are drawing lessons from these instances.

Kuzan noted that ground robots have predominantly proved successful in demining and cargo-transport missions, specifically citing the Ratel S UGV as a valuable system that can also be used as a ground-based munition.

These newer applications could signal a trend, as Russia is moving beyond using land robots in a primarily logistics role, with the development of its latest Buggy UGV designed to detonate upon reaching its target.

“What the Russian military is doing is emulating the concept of a loitering ammunition drone but basing it on an uncrewed ground system — same functionality, but driving to the target instead of flying into it,” said Alain Tremblay, the vice president of innovation and business development at Rheinmetall Canada.

Remotely operated or autonomous robots are the platforms of choice for this, as they can generally “embark a much larger explosive charge,” Tremblay added.