Ukrainian Soldiers Are Giving Guns and Grenade Launchers to Robots

Ukrainian soldiers are increasingly arming ground robots with rifles and other weapons, letting them fire at the Russians rather than putting themselves in harm’s way.

The robots are part of Ukraine’s ongoing innovation race with Russia, a rush to develop new technology to fight back against Russia’s invasion before the enemy can.

Oleksandr Yabchanka, the head of the robotic systems for Ukraine’s Da Vinci Wolves Battalion, told Business Insider that the value in these robots is that they can do the things that even Ukraine’s most courageous soldiers cannot.

Ukraine has long been pumping out aerial drones, and now an increasing number of companies in Ukraine and in partner nations are working on ground robots that can evacuate the wounded, transport and lay mines, explode in Russian positions, and even fire weapons at Russian targets. The tech isn’t new to the war, but it’s becoming more prolific.

Used widely, this growing technology could be a significant boost for Ukraine; its population and military remain much smaller than Russia’s, and it deals with inconsistent support from its international partners regularly. But Russia is working on the tech, too.

The Ukrainian robots that shoot take different forms: some robots are fixed and look like a gun on stilts (effectively a turret), and then there are others that can move around, resembling a machine gun on top of a wheeled robot.

Firing on the Russians

When Ukraine’s soldiers are in reinforced positions, like a trench, they typically have a gun post from which they fire machine guns and other weapons.

The soldiers operating those weapons are extremely vulnerable to return fire, so gun crews take them in shifts.

Russian soldiers see “where the fire is coming from,” Yabchanka said of the Russians, and they attack the gun position with artillery, drones, or grenade launchers.

With more robots, drones, and automated systems on the battlefield, soldiers can now have “exactly the same setting but with a robot there” instead of a human being that can be killed or injured.

The soldier controls the robot, and the robot “can now do things that couldn’t have been done before. Even by the bravest infantry people.” For instance, it can continue firing even amid targeted enemy counterfire.

He said that when most people picture a firing robot, they picture the Terminator from the films of the same name. Yabchanka said that the Ukrainians are getting the same combat capabilities without a bipedal robot with arms and legs. It is a remote-controlled turret, and it’s effective.

He said some of the robots are also automated grenade launchers rather than machine guns.

He described them as “somewhat similar” to the handheld grenade launcher that Arnold Schwarzenegger had in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” but “slightly better.”

Ukraine’s grenade-launching robots include the “Burya” model from Ukrainian company Frontline, which builds a remote grenade launcher turret that can be mounted on a tracked vehicle or a tripod.

Ukraine is increasingly investing in mobile robots with weapons on board. Ukraine’s defense ministry in April, for example, approved the use of the domestically made D-21-12R ground robotic complex, which is equipped with the US-made Browning .50-caliber machine gun.

But Yabchanka shared that mobile firing robots are not being used at scale yet. They are “not yet working in a way that would have a massive effect along the touchline.”

Part of the reason their use is still limited is how hard it can be to keep the robots connected. Russian jamming or a physical attack on a moving robot could mean Ukraine loses the ability to control it, so it just becomes “an expensive pile of metal scrap.”

Ukraine’s robots

Ukraine is employing its robots in a growing number of ways, but Yabchanka described the firing function as “most complex in terms of implementation.” Other functions like casualty evac are less complicated, though they’re not without their own challenges and complexities when it comes to battlefield use.

Robots are being used more and more, but not all units have access to them or use them in large numbers. Yabchanka said his unit has been “pioneering” in using the robots and that its pilots “share those experiences with other units.”

Again, the technology isn’t new, but there is a growing realization that the tech, from robot dogs to crewless tracked vehicles, has potential. Many Western nations have been drawing lessons from the Ukraine war, and ground robots, which are also known as ground drones or uncrewed ground vehicles, are systems that countries are thinking carefully about.

Ukrainian companies are innovating quickly, working in wartime conditions with a Ukrainian government that is supportive even with limited funds and many companies and types of technology to choose from.

Many Western companies are making them, too, and some of them have products that are being used in Ukraine. Estonian robotic vehicle manufacturer Milrem Robotics, for instance, has its THeMIS Unmanned Ground Vehicles in Ukraine.

Kuldar Väärsi, the company’s CEO, told BI in May that the robots support Ukraine’s military by going to the “positions where they don’t want to send their troops” for attacks and for other functions like carrying equipment.

He said that before companies like his were in Ukraine, “quite a lot of people were talking about unmanned ground vehicles in defense. But all that was very experimental and lots of doubts around it.” While there are still some doubts and concerns about these systems, there is a recognition that UGVs have value.

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

Yabchanka said that in Ukraine, the robots are being constantly refined and modified, with soldiers making changes out on the front lines. They are in constant contact with Ukrainian developers about issues and updates they recommend.

He urged Europe to work closely with Ukraine to develop its technology, as many officials in Europe warn that Russia may attack elsewhere on the continent. He said working with Ukrainian expertise is useful because they have real-time data, and “what was up to date and relevant half a year ago is not up to date and relevant anymore.”