Russian military robotics falter in front of Chief Valery Gerasimov
The Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia, Valery Gerasimov, could admire models of Russian robotics. We present how they performed and what they may be based on.
The Russians have emphasized the need to create land robots for many years, but they are not visible in Ukraine apart from prototypes like the Uran-9. The only exception is the Uran-6, which is used for demining. In the context of controlled rovers or defence turrets, much more significant progress is visible on the Ukrainian side.
Meanwhile, in Russia, a demonstration was prepared for the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia, 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
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 1 kilometre (0.6 miles).
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. Companies such as the Estonian Milrem Robotics or the American Textron Defence Systems have achieved some of the greatest successes in ground robots.
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-calibre machine gun NSW or Kord calibre 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 7,500 CAD, to which the Russians added steel plates protecting the sides, among other things. The Chinese robot is supposed to be capable of working on battery power for up to 2 hours and carrying loads up to 120 kilograms (265 pounds).
