In recent developments in battlefield innovation, Ukraine has used both flying drone carriers and drone boats to send ground robots armed with weapons or explosives into battle.
The drone-assisted deployments allowed the slower wheeled robots to bypass difficult terrain and Russian defenses and launch an unusual robotic amphibious assault on a contested position. Such tactics also demonstrate the Ukrainian military’s continued practice of using drones and robots to offset Russia’s military superiority in manpower, while protecting Ukrainian soldiers from dangerous attacks.
On July 19, the Russian military Telegram channel released a video showing a Ukrainian hexacopter drone carrying a ground robot suspended by a cable. United24, a news platform run by the Ukrainian government. Russia’s Telegram channel described a Ukrainian heavy bomber drone carrying a four-wheeled ARK-1 robot armed with explosive anti-tank mines toward Russian military positions, prompting a flurry of angry comments from apparently pro-Kremlin social media users.
It is unclear how successful this particular mission was. But this tactic could improve the survivability of ground robots by helping them evade Russian air surveillance and drone strikes. The ARK-1 robot Some robots can roll at speeds of about 28 miles per hour, though much slower.
Ukrainian ground robots also joined a June 25 Ukrainian military operation targeting the Kinburn Spit, a sandy and narrow peninsula that juts westward into the Black Sea and joins the Russian-occupied left bank of Kherson Oblast.
Russian military forces seized Kinburn Spit in June 2022 and set up positions there to control access to the Black Sea port in southern Ukraine. began to withdraw from the peninsula In early June, Ukraine’s medium- and long-range drone strike campaigns strained Russian supply lines.
