New footage from Ukraine appears to show Ukrainian forces using an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) to strike a Russian trench.
The video, which was posted on Telegram by Ukraine’s 63rd Mechanized Brigade, shows what appears to be a UGV traveling over rough terrain, followed by a large explosion and a person fleeing on foot.
Business Insider was unable to independently verify the location or time of the footage.
A new fleet of UGVs
The Russia-Ukraine war has been marked by the frequent use of aerial drone warfare, but ground drones are a more recent phenomenon.
Last month, United24, a government-backed platform that raises money for the country’s war effort, announced on X that a number of varieties of military ground drones were entering mass production.
On Wednesday, Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, shared footage on X of one such drone — the Ratel S, a remotely operated ground drone designed to carry bombs and anti-tank mines.
“Ukrainian defenders blew up a bridge with the help of robot in the Bakhmut area. It significantly impacted the logistics of the Russian occupants,” Fedorov wrote in the post.
“More game changing tech are on the way,” he added.
The real life work of the ground kamikaze robotics Ratel S.
Ukrainian defenders blew up a bridge with the help of robot in the Bakhmut area. It significantly impacted the logistics of the Russian occupants.
More game changing tech are on the way. pic.twitter.com/zzW4oxfRfT
— Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) April 3, 2024
Samuel Bendett, an advisor at the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) who focuses on Russian military technology, told Business Insider that UGV technology still had a way to go in order to catch up with the efficiency of aerial drones.
“Operating UGVs is more difficult given that terrain and various obstacles must be taken into account,” Bendett said.
“But both sides are experimenting with different designs for different missions, taking into account the generally low cost of assembling and manufacturing small, light vehicles,” he added.
But it’s currently too early to judge how effective these UGVs are, Bendett continued.
“We have to consider that just like for many UAV videos, we are seeing only videos of successful UGV missions,” he said. “At the same time, this is a definitive trend and both Russia and Ukraine will invest resources into developing different combat and logistics UGV types going forward.”
Many of the ground drones are being developed by Ukraine’s Brave1 , a government platform that brings together innovative companies to boost Ukraine’s war effort.
Forbes reported in March that Brave1 said it had looked at around 140 UGV ideas, tested 50 of them in combat situations, and approved 14 of those 50.
Nataliya Kushnerska, the COO of Brave1, told Ukrainian magazine Focus that its main goal was to “minimize human involvement on the battlefield.”
“This will preserve the lives and health of Ukrainian soldiers,” she said.
