Ukraine's Third Corps makes world-first deployment of kamikaze ground robots 10+ km behind enemy lines
Photo: Ground robotic systems in Ukraine (Getty Images)
The Third Army Corps, during the Vivaldi offensive operation in the northern Donetsk region, for the first time in the world deployed kamikaze unmanned ground robotic systems more than 10 kilometers behind Russian troops. The systems were transported there by heavy bomber drones of the Third Assault Brigade.
Robots deployed far behind enemy lines
Commander of the Third Army Corps Brigadier General Andrii Biletskyi said that the corps was the first in the world to begin deploying ground robotic systems by air. Heavy bombers deliver kamikaze unmanned ground robotic systems more than 10 kilometers behind enemy lines.
According to the Third Army Corps, drones and ground robots always move ahead of the infantry during assault operations.
How the offensive plan was concealed
Alongside the deployment of the robots, Ukrainian units used air defense and electronic warfare systems to blind Russian reconnaissance drones. This prevented the enemy from uncovering the plan of the offensive operations.
Artillery and unmanned systems simultaneously targeted command posts, communications hubs, logistics, crossings, and enemy reserves.
Air delivery of ground robots in combat conditions is not an entirely new idea for the Ukrainian army, but it is the first time it has been used for kamikaze unmanned ground robotic systems over such a distance. Earlier, RBC-Ukraine reported on similar tactics, when a heavy drone delivered an ARK-1 ground robotic system behind the Russian army's lines. This method of deployment was called marsupial, by analogy with marsupial animals, when one system transports and releases another.
According to an assessment by Viktor Pavlov, an officer of the ground robotic systems battalion of the Third Assault Brigade, this tactic has limitations — the payload capacity of the carrier drone and the difficulty of softly deploying the robot — and for now remains more of a targeted solution than a systematic approach, being primarily appropriate for overcoming obstacles that the ground robotic system cannot cross on its own, such as rivers, swamps, or dense forests.
