Supplies of "Uranium": the army will receive more sapper robots and firefighters

The Ministry of Defense assessed the successful use of unmanned complexes during its

The Ministry of Defense has decided to increase the supply of combat robots of the Uran family to the troops, a source in the military department told Izvestia. We are talking about the complexes "Uran-6" for mine clearance and "Uran-14" for extinguishing fires. A decision on the supply of Uran-9 reconnaissance and fire support robots with powerful weapons has not yet been made. The Uranus complexes successfully proved themselves during a special military operation. Experts note that their use will help to save human lives both during mine clearance and when extinguishing fires.

With combat experience

The Ministry of Defense has decided to increase the fleet of robotic complexes (RTK) "Uran", a source in the military department told Izvestia. A technical study of the issue is underway, including determining the required number of RTCs. It is expected that newly formed military units will be equipped with novelties.

According to the interlocutors of the publication, we are talking about machines of the Uran-6 series — these are sapper robots designed to destroy minefields. It is also planned to increase the number of Uran-14 complexes created to extinguish fires and destroy rubble in areas of maximum danger, including under artillery fire. At the same time, the source explained that no decision has yet been made on the procurement of Uran-9 combat robots. They are equipped with automatic cannons, grenade launchers and anti-tank missile systems. The task of the "nines" is to conduct reconnaissance, as well as the fight against enemy armored vehicles and fire support for infantry units.

Combat robot "Uran-9" at the exhibition "Day of advanced technologies of Law Enforcement Agencies of the Russian Federation"

Image source: Photo: RIA Novosti/Valery Melnikov

Today, each combined-arms or tank army has an engineering and sapper regiment, and in each military district there is an engineering brigade. They should be sent to the most important sectors of the front. In recent years, units equipped with ground-based unmanned vehicles have been created in all these regiments and brigades.

In early July, the head of the Defense Ministry, Sergei Shoigu, announced that the governing bodies of the Moscow and Leningrad military districts were being formed (they would appear instead of the Western Military District), as well as the combined arms army and the army corps. It was not specified exactly where the new formations would be created.

The robots of the Uran family already have a rich combat path, for example, the sapper Uran-6 was used to clean up the area after the battles in Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as in Syria, and Uran-14 is regularly used where fires occur. For example, in 2019, robot firefighters participated in the elimination of the consequences of an explosion at the arsenal in Achinsk.

For mine clearance

"Uran-6" was first shown to the public at the Victory Day Parade on May 9, 2018. It looks like a smaller copy of a crawler tractor or a bulldozer. The device can carry out mine clearance both in urban areas and in mountainous and wooded areas.

The machine can be equipped with a roller, striker or milling trawl, a bulldozer blade or a mechanical grab. On a hard surface, for example on an asphalt road, a roller trawl is used. For soft soil, a striker is more effective — strikers are unwound on the shaft so that it is possible to loosen the soil by several tens of centimeters. If he finds an explosive device, he will either make it go off or render it unusable before it has time to detonate. In the event of an explosion, the wave and fragments will go along the frontal and lateral directions of the car.

The robotic complex "Uran-6" during the dress rehearsal of the parade on Red Square dedicated to the 73rd anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. 2018

Image Source: Photo: TASS/Sergey Bobylev

The operator controls the device, which is located at the rear at a distance of at least 50 m. With heavy shelling, it can work from cover from a distance of up to a kilometer. Four cameras mounted on the Uranus provide an all-round view.

— Sapper robots are mainly used for demining occupied territories, — military expert Viktor Murakhovsky told Izvestia. — Therefore, now the expansion of their use is quite reasonable. They will be useful because they provide continuous demining without the participation of people. The robot is used where a person may miss or not notice. He conducts continuous mine clearance without interruptions and without errors.

Tests of the sapper robot took place in 2014 in the Sunzhensky district of Chechnya. In a month, he checked more than 80 thousand square meters and destroyed about fifty dangerous items. It was experimentally confirmed that in a day he is able to perform the work of a unit of 20 sappers.

In 2016, robots were sent to Syria to mine the historical part of Palmyra. They were also involved in the Aleppo area. According to the Ministry of Defense, the detachment of the International Mine Action Center of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation for two years of work eliminated more than 100 thousand explosive objects, checked almost 1.5 thousand km of roads, 17 thousand buildings and structures.

To fight fire

The 14-ton "Uran-14" is designed to fight fire in areas of high temperatures and other harsh conditions dangerous to humans. It can extinguish a fire at a distance of at least 35 m with a foam jet and at least 50 m with water. A water fire pump with a capacity of 2 thousand liters per minute is installed on it. The robot is equipped with a rotary grip, which is capable of carrying a load weighing up to 2 tons. The operator can control the equipment from a distance of hundreds of meters, while remaining in a safe zone. The complex has tanks with water and a foaming agent with a capacity of 2 thousand and 600 liters, respectively.

Robotic fire extinguishing complex "Uran-14" during a demonstration of mine-fighting equipment and equipment to foreign mine clearance specialists at the International Mine Action Center of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the Moscow region

Image source: Photo: RIA Novosti/Pavel Gerasimov

During combat operations, the task of fire robots is to ensure the fastest possible advance of troops. The number of tactics that the defenders can use includes setting up a fire curtain. At many large Russian exercises, when repelling attacks by a conditional enemy, combustible materials are blown up in the direction of the main strike. In such a situation, the attackers can either wait until the fire subsides, or look for ways to bypass. With the new technology, it will become easier to solve the problem.

— In case of fire, safety is very important. For example, firefighters often die when a building collapses from fire," Viktor Murakhovsky noted. — And in such a situation — when there is a threat of collapse — robots are very important, they can work in a burning building and save human lives.

Combat use

Sapper "Urans" are already actively used in a special military operation in Ukraine. In May of this year, Izvestia correspondent Daniil Levin showed how these machines work in a combat zone.

— The remote control transmitting station has with it the main, backup control channels in case of loss of communication of the machine in a minefield. The backup channel is switched on, the machine is brought to a safe distance for maintenance. There is a monitor for tracking the work and a wearable remote control," said the sapper operator with the call sign Quiet.

The device, which is located on the neck, weighs 7 kg, and the second part of the device, which needs to be carried, is twice as heavy, the serviceman added.

The Uranus combat kit drives into the field using the control panel and plows the ground, destroying all dangerous objects. Sometimes mines are located next to each other, so another explosion may follow immediately after the first one. The sapper operator is located at a distance, so the remotely controlled machine performs its work smoothly.

Roman Kretsul

Alexey Ramm