Attack drones now cause about three-quarters of all casualties in the Russia-Ukraine war, both sides use long-range versions to strike targets many hundreds of kilometres behind the front line, and Kyiv’s explosive-laden marine drones have forced Moscow to withdraw much of its Black Sea fleet from ports in occupied Crimea.
Ground drones have had a less spectacular rise. Slower and less agile than their flying and floating cousins, they do more military grunt work than eye-catching attack missions, but their creators say they already play a key role in a war that may ultimately be decided by which side wins the battle for robot supremacy.
“Thousands of ground drones are now being used at the front line, and many are built by us,” says Nataliia Kushnerska, chief operating officer of Lviv-based drone manufacturer Roboneers.
“All brigades are now using ground drones every day,” adds the company’s co-founder, Taras Rokoshevskyi. “Logistics at the front line are impossible without them.”
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Cheap and deadly first-person view aerial drones (FPVs) are now ubiquitous at the front line and in a so-called grey zone – also known as the “kill zone” – that extends for about 20km between areas firmly held by the opposing forces. Electronic interference can bring down traditional FPVs, but now both sides fly versions on fibre-optic wires that are immune to jamming.
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FPVs chase down soldiers, slam into vehicles, enter buildings through doors and windows and can swoop into the open hatches of tanks and armoured personnel carriers, exploding on impact. Drones also drop bombs, intercept other drones and conduct surveillance, and Ukraine and Russia are building millions of them every year.
These low-cost killers make any movement in the grey zone perilous, whether launching an attack, delivering reinforcements and supplies to forward positions, or evacuating wounded or fallen soldiers.
Ground drones can assist with all those tasks, and help keep Ukraine’s troops out of the line of fire in its war with a much bigger adversary.
“The main goal is to minimise risks to our soldiers at the front line. Our enemy has far more soldiers than we do, so we need to keep our troops as safe as possible,” says Rokoshevskyi.
“So we should be using ground robots for logistics, to evacuate the wounded and to deliver food, water, ammunition and medical supplies to the front line. And also to bring back our dead – no soldier wants to take on a mission if he thinks his body would not be brought back home. That is very damaging to the motivation of our soldiers.”
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine had only a handful of Bayraktar drones from Turkey and a few hobbyists who realised the little camera-equipped quadcopters that they flew for fun could help monitor enemy movements.
Now drones have become an indispensable part of any modern military, changing the way armies fight and casting doubt on the viability of tanks and other lumbering and costly weapons that are easy prey for what are essentially cheap and nimble guided missiles.
Military manuals must be rewritten, but in the meantime commanding officers are having to learn – not always eagerly – on the hoof and in the heat of battle.
Rokoshevskyi spends a lot of time with frontline units, and still occasionally faces scepticism when he explains the capabilities of Roboneers’ ground drones, which can transport up to 300kg of cargo and be fitted to carry a heavy machine gun, electronic jamming systems and landmines; it can also serve as a large remote-controlled bomb on wheels.
When the leader of one unit waved him away, he found “a couple of soldiers who were willing to help, unofficially”.
“We sent a robot 10km to supply a position with 200kg of [supplies]. The next morning, I asked the commander how many men it would have taken to do this supply run – he said 18,” Rokoshevskyi recalls.
“But he cannot spare 18 soldiers – they already have jobs to do. They are drone operators or snipers or simple infantry soldiers. We don’t have the same numbers as Russia – every soldier’s life is priceless.”
Wartime Ukraine has become a vast testing ground for military technology, and companies like Roboneers are updating their products every few months in line with constant feedback from soldiers at the front.
“Now we have more than 100 (ground drone) models being made in Ukraine and the number is growing all the time,” Kushnerska says. “Some will die along the way. It’s survival of the fittest.”
Ukraine has announced that it will restart limited defence exports this month, and experts have flagged ground drones as one of the products that could be up for sale. At the same time, Kyiv wants to work with western firms to ramp up joint arms production and counter the output advantage of Russia’s immense weapons industry.
“We are leading in innovation but the enemy is leading in scaling and manufacturing. They see what we make, copy it very quickly and then produce huge amounts,” Kushnerska says.
“Western defence companies have incredible engineering capacity, while we bring unique combat-tested experience,” says Rokoshevskyi. “Combining these strengths could create the most effective systems in the world.”
