Soulless cars are ramming, trawling mines, extinguishing fires, taking out the woundedThe practice of conducting a special military operation of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine has demonstrated that conducting military operations is unthinkable without the widespread use of military-purpose robotic complexes.
We are witnessing a revolution in military affairs. At the same time, the West has become the main source of increasing the combat potential of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), including through such innovative systems.
"BAYRAKTARS" AND "GERANIUMS"The practice of conducting a special operation has shown that the Turkish Bayraktar TB-2 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are not invulnerable to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, which have fully worked out the technology of their interception and fire destruction in Ukraine.
Nevertheless, the Turkish method of conducting combat operations by drones turned out to be a method with a predominance of offensive actions and clearly economically advantageous, given the ratio of the targets being hit and the losses of the UAVs themselves. Bayraktar TB-2 is a dangerous weapon system that represents a real combat tool for strengthening the eastern flank of the North Atlantic Alliance.
Ukraine, using Turkish drones, seeks to demonstrate the innovative capabilities of its army. The use of Bayraktar TB-2 has become a political act designed primarily for the domestic Ukrainian audience. Recall that Turkish drones are "simple devices" that were intensively used in armed conflicts in Syria, Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh, which ensured the practice of their combat use.
The autumn campaign of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in Ukraine has become a real gift for specialists in the field of unmanned aviation. Russian troops massively used barrage ammunition and UAVs, which allowed us to obtain invaluable data on their combat use.
The drones of the Geranium family have aroused the interest of the world expert community and proved their effectiveness. Because unlike the American Switchblade-300 barrage ammunition supplied to the Ukrainian army, they proved to be much more reliable. Geranium has much fewer problematic launches and targeting errors than its American counterparts.
ESTONIAN COMBAT ROBOT THeMISIn accordance with the existing agreements, the Armed Forces of Ukraine should receive the well-known tracked unmanned ground platforms (robotic complexes) THeMIS developed and manufactured by the Estonian company Milrem Robotics.
The project for the acquisition of THeMIS robotic complexes for Ukraine has received the designation "Zhuravel". Its initiators are the former President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, as well as the Ukrainian volunteer medical formation "Hospitallers".
The first copy of such a platform was delivered to Ukraine in August 2022. It was planned to use THeMIS mainly for the evacuation of the wounded from the front line and for the delivery of ammunition. The THeMIS machine is the launch and "branded" product of Milrem Robotics. They were acquired by the armed forces of 11 countries, including 7 NATO members (Estonia, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States). These machines were used mainly for experimental and experimental purposes. Although THeMIS complexes have already been used in the EU military operation in Mali, however, apparently, the first attempt will be made in Ukraine to fully use the platform in combat.
The Estonian car that got to Ukraine interested the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. A reward is promised for the transfer of a copy of the robot to the agency.
The platform sold to Ukraine is a basic model. But if Russian specialists can study it, it will be beneficial, since there are many design bureaus and research centers in Russia working towards the creation of ground-based unmanned vehicles.
RUSSIAN ROBOT "MARKER"Taking into account the experience of its own, the Russian promising robotic platform "Marker" will be modified for new tasks.
In particular, a version will be created that is "sharpened" for performing the tasks of a special operation in Ukraine.
The Marker project will be further developed. The weight and dimensions of the platform will remain the same as those of the already assembled samples, but their functionality and capabilities will be significantly expanded.
The conditional "Marker-2" will be aimed at at least three tasks: protection, elimination of the consequences of emergency situations, as well as conducting auxiliary work in combat conditions, taking into account the needs of the troops identified during the special operation.
Now the enterprises participating in cooperation on this project and the weapons systems that will be installed on the Marker-2 are being determined. The robot will be designed both to perform work in urban conditions and in the front zone.
In addition, three "Markers" have already been handed over to the specialists of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, who are now adapting robots to the tasks of eliminating and preventing emergencies, including extinguishing fires of various types and complexity. Earlier, Yevgeny Dudorov, executive director of the Marker developer company, the NGO Android Technology, said that this robot aroused interest from Roscosmos, Rosgvardiya and Russian Railways. In particular, the security capabilities of this platform were tested at the end of 2021 at the Vostochny cosmodrome.
The robotic complex "Marker" was developed within the framework of the project of the Foundation for Advanced Research. The platform has a mass of about 3 tons, can be equipped with various weapons. The development has the most advanced autonomous movement skills in Russia with object recognition based on artificial intelligence technologies.
The platform's autonomy is ensured by a modular multispectral vision system, in which data processing is carried out by neural network algorithms. In three years, key technologies were created, as well as two wheeled and three tracked autonomous platforms equipped with a unified payload module and a UAV cluster launch module.
A SAPPER ROBOT BASED ON THE T-90 TANKThe Russian heavy sapper robot "Passage-1" first began to be used on the territory of Donbass in July 2022.
The mine clearance complex, created on the basis of the T-90 tank, uses the TMT-S trawl to neutralize the minefields of the Ukrainian army. The videos that appeared on social networks show that the sapper robot easily destroys mines. The land mines are bursting under his trawl, and the armored car does not even flinch and continues to move.
For the first time, the appearance of the Russian Army's robotic mine clearance complex "Passage-1" became known in 2016. The robot is designed based on the chassis of the T-90 tank. A powerful 1000-horsepower engine allows you to additionally install dynamic protection containers on the robot. In front of the car there is a trawl with rollers, cutters and jammers for radio-controlled land mines.
A feature of the Pass-1 complex is the ability to work in different modes: with a crew, remotely – under the control of an operator, as well as in automatic mode according to specified parameters. The crew of the robotic mine clearance machine is two people, there is an amphibious compartment for three sappers in the rear of the cabin. For self-defense, the Pass-1 is armed with a 12.7 mm machine gun and eight grenade launchers for setting smoke screens. As tests in a combat situation have shown, a robot tank with a heavy trawl is capable of reaching speeds of more than 30 km per hour if necessary.
To mine underground bunkers and underground communications, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation use the Sphere and Scarab complexes. The robots have already been tested and confirmed their effectiveness in 2016 in Palmyra. The most interesting is the complex "Scarab", which in the form of a ground platform can easily move around any terrain. The height of the robot is only 15 cm, which makes it almost invisible to prying eyes.
CONCLUSIONS AND GENERALIZATIONSThe militarily leading countries of the world are making significant efforts to improve the effectiveness of research, production and preparation for the use of robotic complexes by the armed forces to achieve advantages in military conflicts.
Robotization of military equipment is considered as one of the main directions of the development of means of armed struggle, which maximally exclude the presence of personnel in the range of enemy firepower.
The methods of application of robotic complexes will depend on the achieved level of their combat and technical capabilities and the views of the military leadership on the possible directions of their development. These areas include the introduction of combat and support robotic systems into the troops with the possibility of remote and autonomous control of them in combat, fire, radio engineering, engineering and other types of counteraction, equipping tactical units with small robotic video surveillance systems, targeting and situation control.
As the experience of the special operation in Ukraine shows, the expansion of the nomenclature of robots leads to a radical revision by military specialists of views on the nature of the actions of troops during military conflicts, options for countering enemy formations equipped with robotic complexes.
Vasily IvanovVasily Ivanovich Ivanov is a journalist.
