The war in Ukraine is the first major armed conflict in the history of the world to see the use of such a wide variety of different robots. And not only for intelligence gathering, but also for direct combat engagements. What are they armed with?
Interestingly, they are usually armed quite cheaply. Drones often drop hand grenades or improvised explosive devices, kamikaze drones are sometimes armed with RPG-7 warheads, while the ground robots carry anti-tank landmines.
Ratel-S armed with an anti-tank mine. This robot has a control range of 6 km. Image credit: Михайло Федоров via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
In fact, landmines are sometimes dropped on Russian heads by larger flying drones as well. Ukrainians have a lot of anti-tank mines and they are considered very cheap. Many of them remained in warehouses after the Soviet Union collapsed.
In addition, after driving the Russians out of the Kharkiv and Kherson regions, the defenders of Ukraine collected a lot of anti-tank mines there, which they now use in various ways. One way to use them is to return them to the Russians. Aggressively.
A video has been published online showing a Ukrainian robot carrying an anti-tank mine to Russian positions. The mine was then detonated, blowing a large hole in the Russian trenches. These landmines were meant to destroy tanks, so you can imagine that the explosion is really strong.
Ukrainians have developed more than one system capable of using anti-tank mines as ammunition. For example, the photo above shows the small robot Ratel-S. It is quite small, but can reach a speed of 24 km/h. and can be controlled at a distance of 6 km.
The mass production of Ratel-S was reported back in October last year. A robot like that can be sent directly under a Russian tank, if only there is such an opportunity. The Ratel-S can be armed with an anti-tank mine or a pair of mortar bombs.
Meanwhile, the Baba Yaga is a drone that drops anti-tank mines on Russian heads. It is a large 6-rotor drone capable of carrying quite heavy loads. Anti-tank mines like the TM-62 weigh about 10 kg. Of course, Baba Yaga can use other ammunition as well – mortar shells, RPG-7 warheads, etc.. It is also interesting that although the Baba Yaga was created in response to the Russian invasion, the roots of this drone are older – the predecessors of the Baba Yaga were used in agriculture.
Anti-tank landmines are excellent ammunition that cost very little and are readily available. The Ukrainians are very short of artillery ammunition and are trying to compensate for this starvation of shells with drones and robots. The funding for the development and production of unmanned military systems is being increased all the time. And other countries must be watching this very closely. After it’s all said and done, robots of various roles might be the key to the end of this war.
Written by Povilas M.
Sources: Defence-ua.com, Wikipedia