Robot Maker Said the Ukraine War Led It to Make Big Changes

A military robotics company based in a NATO country bordering Russia says battlefield use of its machines in Ukraine provided valuable insight that led it to rethink its technology and how it could better meet wartime demands.

Estonia’s Milrem Robotics makes autonomous ground robots that can be used to gather intelligence, evacuate wounded troops, dispose of explosive devices, and carry weaponry like machine guns.

Its THeMIS model, which can carry a payload of up to 2,645.5 pounds and travel at up to 12 miles per hour, is in Ukraine, clearing mines, carrying cargo, and moving out injured soldiers.

Kuldar Väärsi, the founder and CEO of Milrem Robotics, told Business Insider that Western weapons makers and militaries need to be learning from what’s happening in Ukraine and that the company’s experiences there have led to some changes in its products.

Väärsi said that developments in Ukraine are “totally different” from peacetime, when weapons are used in training and exercises.

The company has been closely watching for ways to make its robots better, both to help Ukraine and to help Europe if needed.

One key area has been the simplicity of use. He said the THeMIS was “already quite simple and very easy system to control,” but the needs on the battlefield meant it had to be even simpler.

He said that in peacetime, equipment might only be used by experienced troops with training. “In Ukraine, in real war, you can’t follow that,” Väärsi said.

“Basically, anybody who needs that equipment will use it, and the more intuitive and simple you make the user interface and you make the usability, the more certain you can be that actually it’ll be properly used and efficiently used and it’ll be useful for the troops.”

The electronic warfare battle in Ukraine, in which both sides are jamming and spoofing everything — drones, comms, GPS, and more— has also sparked big changes in uncrewed systems technology.

“What we have learned and changed and implemented in our systems is everything related to EW, communication, and cyber,” the Milrem CEO said.

Evolutions in countermeasures like electronic warfare have led to developments like fiber-optic drones and AI-enabled drones that are resistant to enemy jamming.

“What we can see as a trend in Ukraine is that technologies around communication change basically weekly,” Väärsi said, referring to the combat systems that rely heavily on stable signals. The feedback from Ukraine means “we have changed quite significantly our design and our products,” he said.

Väärsi said the company was “very eager” to provide its systems to Ukraine it is based in Estonia, a country once part of the Soviet Union like Ukraine and a current Russian neighbor worried about the possibility of an attack on its sovereignty.

Estonia is among the biggest defense spenders in NATO as a proportion of GDP and one of the countries sounding the alarm the loudest about Russia.

“It’s our mission to support Ukraine as much as we can, to help them win this war. And even if it’s as little as sending our vehicles, then we should certainly do it,” Väärsi said.

He said it’s a good business move, too. “If you look at it from the validation perspective, the equipment which doesn’t justify itself in Ukraine, why should that be even necessary?”

Milrem was founded in 2013, and Väärsi said that before this war, “quite a lot of people were talking about unmanned ground vehicles in defense,” but there were also “lots of doubts around it.”

This war “has demonstrated that unmanned ground vehicles have a really important place on the battlefield,” he said.

Learning from Ukraine

Many Western governments want their countries’ battlefield technology in Ukraine so companies can learn how best to be ready for any potential conflict with Russia — something many European countries warn could happen.

It’s something many Western defense companies want too. Their products can be battle-tested and updated, proving their worth and increasing sales.

Luke Pollard, the UK’s armed forces minister, said last month: “If you are a drone company and you do not have your kit on the front line in Ukraine, you might as well give up.”

Väärsi said that Milrem Robotics has a team that regularly visits Ukraine, meets military units, and works directly with the operators who use the company’s equipment. It will also soon have a team based in Ukraine to “be closer to Ukrainian forces and to support them even better,” he shared.

Many companies work closely with soldiers to aid development. A Ukrainian drone operator previously told BI that he texts and FaceTimes with drone makers about their products to encourage a better iterative design and development process.

Robots of the future

Ground robots are particularly useful on the battlefield because they can be used to move a lot more weight than the flying drones and often more than humans can, fire from positions that are not safe for soldiers to fight from, and travel closer to Russian positions than any human fighter can safely.

Väärsi said he sees the robots’ role “as a first line of defense or offense,” keeping troops safer. That benefits Ukraine, which doesn’t have manpower to spare.

“You don’t move your troops in front, but you move your unmanned systems,” he said.

Väärsi noted Ukraine, which has a rapidly growing defense industry, has also developed a “very capable” ground robots industry.

It’s a technology the West and others as well are looking at more and more. Germany’s ARX Robotics opened Europe’s largest production facility for ground military robots this year, and companies across the continent are making new models.

Milrem is playing a leading role, heading a consortium developing unmanned ground systems that received $56 million in funding from the European Defense Fund. Its robots are capable platforms that Russian researchers actually put a bounty on, encouraging soldiers to try to steal one to advance Russia’s work in this space.

The company’s other products include larger combat vehicles, like HAVOC, which has a payload capacity of 5 tons. It also has an AI-enabled intelligent functions kit, which lets the vehicles move autonomously. It says that its products are part of robotics programs or in service in 19 countries, including the US, UK, and Germany.

Ground robots are one of many things Ukraine’s international partners are watching closely as they look into what sort of tactics, weaponry, and so on they should adopt.

Milrem collaborates with companies that are in Ukraine, and Väärsi encouraged other foreign defense companies to do the same.

“What I consider very important is that in Europe we need to learn and very seriously learn what is ongoing in Ukraine: what works, what doesn’t work, what mindsets need to be shifted to be better equipped if — hopefully that never happens — but if Russia decides to expand their activities in the warfare.”