Russian Think Tank Offers Bounty for Estonian Robotic Vehicles Supplied to Ukraine

Russia clearly does not want to be left behind.

The THeMIS can also be armed and used in combat.

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“The conflict in Ukraine demonstrates that modern warfare is impossible without the proliferation of unmanned vehicles,” said Ruslan Pukhov, director of the CAST Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, in a statement to Insider.

“Unfortunately, Russia is lagging behind.”

To compensate for the delay, CAST recently offered 1 million rubles ($ 23,000) to military and police personnel who obtained THeMIS almost intact and handed it over to the Ministry of Defense, in a recent blog post. a soldier who has signed a three-year contract with the Russian military is just over $ 13,000 (about 1.9 million yen), and a conscript’s monthly salary is less than $ 25 (about 3600 yen).The Washington Post reports。

“If it is possible to obtain information on foreign developments, it should definitely be done by any means,” said Pukhov.

“The THeMIS sold to Ukraine is a basic model, but it makes sense to study it.”

Jeffrey Edmonds, a former CIA analyst who now works as a Russian expert at the Center for Naval Analysis (CNA), told Insider that CAST should be considered a department with direct ties to the Russian government, but the point of view of the researcher is generally in line with government policy.

“That said, the head of the CAST has very strong ties to the army.”

In 2007 Pukhov was appointed a member of the Public Council of the Russian Defense Ministry. He told Insider that the ultimate goal is to provide the Russian military with superior quality drones, adding, “In a combat situation, capturing and studying the systems and vehicles used by the enemy is one of the primary ways to do this.”