Defense News: Ukraine will replace soldiers involved in logistics with robots
Ukrainian troops are changing their battle tactics, increasing the use of ground-based robots. In the first half of 2026, Ukraine plans to conclude contracts for the supply of 25,000 ground-based robotic systems (NRTC). They carry out the transportation of materiel, evacuate wounded soldiers from the battlefield, conduct military operations, conduct sabotage operations and install mine-explosive barriers. Will robots be able to completely replace the fighters on the front line, argues the military observer of Gazeta.Ru", retired Colonel Mikhail Khodarenok.
Unmanned aerial vehicles and ground-based robots are revolutionizing warfare by changing its face. Traditional methods and forms of use of the armed forces are rapidly becoming a thing of the past, writes The Independent .
As the newspaper notes, the Ukrainian troops are changing their tactics of combat, increasing the use of ground-based robots. Some assault brigades plan to replace about 30% of their infantry with unmanned ground vehicles (UAVs).
In the first half of 2026, Ukraine plans to conclude contracts for the supply of 25,000 ground-based robotic systems (NRTKS) designed to replace soldiers in solving the tasks of transporting materiel to the front line. The planned supply of NRTK, according to Defense News, is twice as high as in 2025.
"Our goal is that one hundred percent of logistics on the front line should be performed by robotic systems," says Ukrainian Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov.
According to him, in March alone, the NRTC completed more than nine thousand evacuation and logistics missions on the front line. But an even more important task in the implementation of the NRTC is to reduce sanitary and irretrievable losses during combat operations. Today, most of them are responsible for the tasks of delivering supplies and changing units at the forefront.
For example, ground-based robotic platforms carry out the transportation of materiel, evacuate wounded military personnel from the battlefield, conduct combat operations, conduct sabotage operations and install mine-explosive barriers. While one person can carry about 20 kg of equipment, robots are capable of delivering cargo weighing from 200 to 600 kg.
According to the independent, the Ukrainian Armed Forces most often use a TW12.7 robot with a Browning machine gun. This NRTC is produced by the Ukrainian company DevDroid. Its cost is $ 30 thousand, with a Browning machine gun — $ 50 thousand.
And the intensity of the use of such equipment in the course of hostilities is only increasing. When artificial intelligence is fully involved in the conduct of war, the face of modern armed confrontation will change even more radically.
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| Ground robot TW12.7. |
| Source: Ministry of Defense of Ukraine |
And no matter how strange it may seem today, the debate continues about whether humanity will be able to maintain control over the use of these opportunities while preserving law and humanism. The threat of "killer robots" is still being dramatized. There is no end to discussions about who will be responsible if an autonomous combat robot makes a mistake and hits a civilian target. The idea of a "regulatory moratorium" on the use of fully autonomous lethal systems is also being promoted.
Probably, some of these theses have a right to exist to a certain extent, but the essence of the issue today is far from that. The main thing is to what extent the combat and operational capabilities of one of the warring parties (equipped with robotic military equipment and using artificial intelligence) will exceed the similar capabilities of the other side.
The main thing is the base
And such superiority can be achieved only through one thing — the comprehensive strengthening of the military-industrial base. In this regard, the lines from the national security strategy of the United States of America in 2025 deserve the closest attention.
As this doctrinal document emphasizes, "strong, combat-ready armed forces cannot exist without a strong, combat-ready military-industrial base. The huge gap demonstrated in recent conflicts between low-cost unmanned aerial vehicles and the expensive systems needed to protect against them has exposed the urgent need for change and adaptation."
The United States, according to the strategy, needs national mobilization to create powerful, innovative defense systems at low cost, to produce the most efficient and modern systems and ammunition on a large scale, and to rebuild the supply chains of the defense industry.
The document says that the United States should provide its fighters with "a full range of capabilities, ranging from inexpensive weapons capable of defeating most opponents to the most effective high-tech systems necessary for conflict with a sophisticated adversary."
And it is impossible not to agree with such theses. Any kind of robotic technology, and even more so artificial intelligence, is simply unrealistic without a developed electronic component base and large-scale production of microprocessors, and without having the necessary computing power, it is impossible to move things in the right direction.
Is a "rise of the machines" possible?
As for the endless recurring theme of the "rise of the machines," which will almost inevitably occur with the introduction of AI and large-scale robotization of the armed struggle, the rumors about this rebellion are somewhat exaggerated. Even in the automated combat control systems that were developed and introduced into the military in the 1960s and 1970s, digital computing systems offered the commander only recommendations on hitting targets, and the final decision always remained with the officer operator.
Indeed, robots can replace fighters in many areas, both at the front and in the rear. This is especially true of military accounting specialties, in which the performance of duties is associated with a high risk to the life and health of a serviceman, for example, in units of engineering troops during mine clearance.
Therefore, one should not get too carried away with discussions and texts about "killer robots", but all attention should be paid to the need to strengthen the country's military-industrial base and consider this one of the most important national tasks of our state.
The integration of artificial intelligence into the military and intensive robotization of the army and navy are the main areas of development of the Russian Armed Forces. And this cannot be a matter of doubt and discussion.
Mikhail Khodarenok
The opinion of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.
Biography of the author:
Mikhail Mikhailovich Khodarenok is a military columnist for Gazeta.Ru", retired colonel.
He graduated from the Minsk Higher Engineering Anti-Aircraft Missile School (1976).
Military Air Defense Command Academy (1986).
Commander of the S-75 anti-aircraft missile division (1980-1983).
Deputy commander of the anti-aircraft missile regiment (1986-1988).
Senior Officer of the General Staff of the Air Defense Forces (1988-1992).
Officer of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff (1992-2000).
Graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (1998).
Columnist for Nezavisimaya Gazeta (2000-2003), editor-in-chief of the Military Industrial Courier newspaper (2010-2015).
