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The modern battlefield has been transformed by drones in the air and on the high seas, and now, Russia and Ukraine are on the verge of deploying large numbers of ground-based drones on Ukrainian soil. A recently released video demonstrates the extent to which unmanned vehicles are transforming the modern battlefield. The video shows two remote-controlled Russian drones armed with grenade launchers being destroyed by Ukrainian aerial drones. All of this was filmed by a spy drone hovering nearby.
The video showing the destruction of a drone by another drone is just one of several videos released in recent weeks featuring unmanned ground vehicles. Other videos show a ground-based drone firing a barrage of bullets at Russian positions, and a wheeled kamikaze drone slowly carrying a large explosive device across a field before detonating it under a bridge in Russian-controlled territory.
Nataliia Kushnerska, head of Brave1, a Ukrainian government organization, told Radio Free Europe that her organization "had among its top priorities the production of ground robots to be on par with unmanned systems." Brave1, she says, has accepted more than 200 designs for unmanned ground vehicles on its platform, and has tested 50 of them so far.
Ground drones were first used in warfare during the Soviet Union's invasion of Finland in 1939. Soviet "Teletanks" were traditional tanks equipped with remote controls. They were controlled by the human hand to move and fire the gun from a distance, without the aid of modern video footage. It is believed that Soviet teletanks were last used in combat during World War II in 1942.
Also during that war, the German army built a kamikaze ground drone called "Goliath". This car-sized drone was packed with explosives and controlled via a wire that trailed back as the Goliath headed toward enemy positions. Thousands of "destroyer drones" had been produced, but they were slow and very easily stopped with firearms.
Since World War II, there have been many attempts to revive the concept of ground combat drones, but success has been limited.
Russia's unmanned Uran-9 tank was used in combat during Syria's civil war in 2018, but failed so badly that one officer pointed out that the system was at least a decade away from being battle-ready. This tank has not yet been used in Ukraine.
Michael Boyle, a professor at Rutgers University and author of a book on drone warfare, told REL that there are several reasons why development of ground combat drones has been slow.
"The first reason is the terrain", he said.
"While aerial drones can fly as freely as birds and naval drones also move through a relatively unrestricted element, ground drones "must be able to move rapidly across non-level surfaces and under combat fire to accomplish missions. ", Boyle said.
Obstacles as simple as a pothole or piles of barbed wire, which a soldier can easily jump over, present an insurmountable obstacle for many ground drones. Another important factor is the price.
"Developing a ground vehicle that can operate in rugged and remote terrain, and be usable by other military units, is expensive," Boyle said.
While kamikaze aerial drones costing a few hundred dollars are sent on one-way missions, large ground drones that are developed enough to move across battlefields with potholed terrain "can't be used in the same way in general," according to Boyle.
The drone expert added that "the communication infrastructure with [ground drones] needs to be particularly secure, at least for now when they are so expensive."
Kushnerska says the most promising ground drone design that Brave1 is testing now is a vehicle designed to transport wounded from the battlefield.
"Communications with the army have shown us that defenders suffer a lot of losses while carrying the wounded," she said.
She says a remotely controlled or autonomous vehicle could take the place of the three to six soldiers needed to carry a wounded soldier from the front line.
"By the end of 2024, we expect this [unmanned ground vehicle] to be a systematic part of our military's operations," she predicted./REL
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