GVSETS 2025 — As the war against Russia grinds on, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have identified more and more uses for unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), from serving as hosts for electronic warfare payloads to medevac, but they’re always on the lookout for more, according to a Ukrainian official.
“I saw today some [unmanned] systems over there in the exhibition,” Ukrainian Army Maj. Gen. Borys Kremenskyi told the audience at the ground vehicle conference GVSETS here in Michigan. “We have to work with them. Just to be very clear, we are ready to take any system to test.”
Kremenskyi, the defense attache for the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, said UGVs have been “really crucial” on the battlefield. For example, the front lines have become saturated with electronic warfare signals, which has prompted Ukrainian forces to equip unmanned platforms with their own EW capabilities and role them out into dangerous territory.
“When we are talking about EW, we are changing, and the enemies are changing. We are developing this [approach], but it creates a kind of electronic warfare dome,” Kremenskyi noted.
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Elsewhere, he said UGVs are used for medevac, because he claimed Russian drones tend not to care if manned vehicles have red crosses painted on them to denote medical teams.
“Since you cannot fly a helicopter to the trenches, we had to invent other ways of medevac, and ground unmanned systems are quite good. With a low trailer, the soldier can somehow help himself to be on,” Kremenskyi said.
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Another mission area has been mine clearance, he said, which can be “really difficult.”
“Despite all the machinery, we cannot go there [to the minefields]. A soldier with a metal needle cannot test this. So, it’s a really huge problem,” Kremenskyi said.
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The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) estimated in June that over 20 percent of the land in Ukraine is contaminated by mines or unexploded ordnances. It represents a nearly 55,000 square mile area.
Another application for UGVs is in the domain of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. The domestically developed Droid TW tracked platform, for instance, has been operating since December last year in ISR missions, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. This vehicle features artificial intelligence algorithms to recognize enemy manpower.
“It is about innovation. If you don’t innovate during two months, you are dead. So, you need to change,” Kremenskyi said.
According to the Ukrainian MoD, in the first half of this year, nearly 30 new UGVs and remotely controlled weapon stations manufactured in the country were approved for deployment within its military services.
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Author: Flavia Camargos Pereira
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