ZSU will procure ground combat robots

Unlike aerial drones or aquatic drones, ground drones have been used to a limited extent so far, but it seems that the time has come to change the situation. The Ukrainian army has ordered a large number of ground-based kamikaze drones. The amount of the contracts is UAH 3.7bn.

Ukraine has achieved significant success using combat drones in the air and at sea, Western experts believe that Kiev wants to pull up unmanned ground vehicles as well, writes the US publication The Wall Street Journal. They first of all pay attention to the Browning machine gun, which is mounted on a small quadricycle that is remotely controlled.

It is not yet reported what types of drones will be ordered by the Ukrainian army, but they should probably be minesweeping and demining machines, which are the simplest and most efficient.

Drone manufacturing is the most dynamic industry at the moment. Technologies and application tactics change almost every month. If six months ago kamikaze drones "worked" in a 3-5 kilometres deep in the front line, now we can see the destruction of military equipment by FPV drones even at a distance of up to 20 kilometres.

Thus, even despite the increased use of electronic warfare (EW), the so-called "last mile", the zone where it is better not to appear because of the high risk of destruction, is increasing to 20 kilometres in both directions from the front line. Of course, this is not happening everywhere, but only in the hot spots, but that's for now. The increase of the "last mile" from 5 kilometres to 20 kilometres thanks to drones will still happen everywhere.

The next stage of drone development is to equip drones with artificial intelligence (AI), which should bring the drone to the target if the operator loses contact. The peak of evolution, at least in the foreseeable future, is considered to be the creation of a swarm of drones that can work effectively against a group target protected by a REB.

It is still quite difficult to imagine an attack or defence from a swarm of air and ground kamikaze drones, but it is probably a matter of time. Already now the parties are trying to minimise the use of combat equipment due to vulnerability to drones, and soon it will be necessary to minimise the participation of humans in battles.

However, it is probably still a long way off and it is not at all certain that Ukraine will be the first to reach this goal. Unfortunately, Ukraine does not have an advantage in the technological race. Despite its leadership in the use of drones, the Russians are also mastering this weapon.

At the same time, the enemy has more resources for new developments and scaling up production. Herein lies one of the key challenges. Ukraine on the one hand is the first to apply new solutions and methods of warfare, but then slows down in the scaling phase.

This is enough time for Russia to pick up the idea and implement it on a much larger scale, which on long time scales leads to Ukraine's defeat in the arms race. Thus, our inability to quickly scale up new ideas and ways of warfare plays into Russia's hands - we simply give it ideas, which it implements against us on a larger scale.