Russian military robotics display disappoints: Flaws in performance exposed
The Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Valery Gerasimov, could admire models of Russian robotics. We present how they performed and what they may be based on.
The Russians have long stressed the need to create land robots, but apart from prototypes like the Uran-9, they are not visible in Ukraine. The only exception is the Uran-6, which is used for demining. Much greater progress is visible on the Ukrainian side in the context of controlled rovers or defence turrets.
Meanwhile, in Russia, a demonstration was prepared for the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Valery Gerasimov, where not everything went according to plan. Just see how one of the robots almost got stuck on a simulated obstacle.
Robots in war — useful but more difficult to use than expected
The idea of using armed robots instead of soldiers on the battlefield, for example in attacking strong fortifications, is a very tempting vision, but not yet feasible.
Due to the presence of electronic warfare systems, a high level of autonomy is required, which is currently observed exclusively in flying drones. In the case of professional military designs, these can strike predefined targets even after losing contact with the pilot.
The situation is worse on the ground, where the range is limited. The best method of communication would be a deployed fibre optic cable, similar to a large portion of anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs). This drastically limits the range, and in the case of the Ukrainian IRONCLAD robot, the "cable" range is about 1 km.
This means that an armed machine, weighing tens or even hundreds of kilograms, would have to be brought into the combat zone, which is very logistically demanding. Some of the greatest successes in the field of ground robots are achieved by companies such as the Estonian Milrem Robotics or the American Textron Defence Systems.
Compared to them, the presented Russian robots look like models hastily assembled with what was at hand to satisfy Valery Gerasimov at the demonstration. The first robot is equipped with a multi-caliber machine gun NSW or Kord caliber 12.7x108 mm with a mounted sound suppressor, and the second is a transport variant.
Some commentators suggest that the armed variant is based on a Chinese commercial robot, TR600, for £3,270, to which the Russians added some steel plates protecting, among other things, the sides. The Chinese robot is supposed to be capable of working on battery power for up to 2 hours and carrying loads up to 120 kg.
