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Uran-9 ground-based combat robot on a military truck during a parade. “/>Just a “showcase example”? Specialist journalists currently consider a ground-based killer robot like the Uran-9 to be suitable purely for propaganda purposes. (Archive photo) © IMAGO / Sergei Bobylev
Ukraine is also sending armed robots because of a lack of soldiers. The new weapon is called “Pernach” and is intended to stop oncoming Russian troops.
Kiev – “Destroy more than 100 occupiers a month” – the message of the video is clear. At the beginning of September the portal had Business Insider most recently reported on a machine gun that Ukraine is using in the fight against Vladimir Putin’s invading army and is controlled like a shooting game via a console. The gun was in a post X been presented. As the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reports, its armed forces have now certified another type of this weapon and approved it for use by the troops. Around ten years ago, the think tank “The Foreign Military Studies Office” (FMSO) reported that such weapons were often assembled in garages and used by terrorists for ambushes.
“Pernach” is the name of the new weapon and is actually a platform, like the Ukrainian broadcaster RBC citing the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense reported. The indigenously manufactured “remote-controlled combat module” was designed to be mounted on various armored vehicles to provide additional firepower; This would mean that the module could be equipped with different weapons, targeting systems and components depending on specific requirements and could be used for different missions, such as RBC writes.
Ukraine’s last chance: Remotely controlled weapons to effectively combat enemy combatants
Like the Ukrainian platform Unided24 Added, the Pernach’s gun turret is also equipped with a thermal imaging camera and wide-angle cameras for target location and can fire at a distance of just over five kilometers. “The module can be equipped with various weapons, including automatic grenade launchers, anti-tank missile systems, machine guns and other firearms. This versatility makes it effective against both ground and air targets,” reports RBC.
“I think the military wants to send systems out with the troops, like dogs, or mules, or other things in the past that helped soldiers accomplish their mission.”
There is no information about the innovations of the new weapon. The background to the variety of types is also questionable. The weapon, introduced at the beginning of September, is called ShaBlya and is strikingly similar to the Pernach. At the end of last year, the technology portal technology.org reports that Ukrainians from the 118th Separate Territorial Defense Brigade in the Cherkassy region developed a remote-controlled stand for an old Soviet machine gun and called the system “Tarantul.” “This weapon earns its spider name because of its long slender legs, which must be secured to the ground with long metal stakes to prevent the weapon from tipping over,” the portal wrote.
ShaBlya still sits on four legs, Pernach now sits on a solid tripod. In fact, it can be seen in the first images that the electronics, sensors and haptics of the three different models appear more sophisticated towards the newer date and therefore obviously represent the individual generations of a remote-controlled weapon over a relatively short period of time. Using the example of the ShaBlya combat module, the magazine had Defense Express written that its primary purpose was to improve reconnaissance efforts by quickly identifying targets on the battlefield and effectively engaging enemy combatants.
Russia lagging behind: Uranium-9 robot badly botched the dress rehearsal
Tactically speaking, they would provide a stable, precise firing platform; and without the risk of being shot at, remote-controlled shooters could place their shots more carefully, the magazine wrote Forbes a few years ago, when such weapons were used for assassinations in the Middle East. However, these machine guns or machine cannons are now taking to the battlefield in greater numbers, like the magazine Army Recognition reported in September: “A Remote Weapon Station (RCWS) or Remote Weapon Station (RWS), also known as a Remote Weapon System (RWS), is a remotely controlled weapon system, often equipped with a fire control system for light and medium caliber weapons, and on the ground – and tracked combat vehicles as well as tactical light vehicles and trucks.
Forbes In his report on the more frequent use of remote-controlled automatic cannons, he referred to the 2016 report by the think tank The Foreign Military Studies Office (FMSO) for the US Army. In it, the authors Robert J. Bunker and Alma Keshavarz reported on Russian ones Experiments with remote-controlled machine gun turrets that could have been controlled from a distance of 50 kilometers – from ships as well as from command vehicles at a safe distance from the Combat events. For example, Russia has developed the Uran-9 remote-controlled machine gun vehicle. The two US authors wrote in 2016 that the vehicle was no longer an improvised mobile firearm like its predecessor, but was already the precursor to an unmanned tank.
However, the vehicle appears to have botched its dress rehearsal in the Syria conflict so badly that the uranium-9 plays no role in the current war events like the portal does Soldier & technology prophesied at the beginning of the Ukraine war. Even the remote-controlled Uran-6 ordnance disposal vehicle does not seem to be used in the current war, as the magazine observed. Russia apparently has a lot of catching up to do in defense robotics – one reason for this could be a lack of technical components.
Ukraine war as a growth engine: Forced automation on symmetrical battlefields
According to the US-based market research company Fact.MR, the global market volume is expected to rise from the current level of almost nine billion euros to around 28 billion euros by 2033. The management consultants assume that remote-controlled weapons will experience a boom, especially in asymmetrical combat situations – here, counterinsurgency in emerging countries is clearly cited as a growth engine; According to the report, the costs of automation there still make the use of soldiers appear cheaper due to expensive sensors. On symmetrical battlefields, there seems to be almost a compulsion to automate.
Fact.MR cites the protection of its own ground troops as the main reason for the rapid replacement of existing weapons systems with automated systems. “With a share of 40 percent, ground forces continue to make the largest contribution to market growth,” writes Fact.MR. “We have the situation where Ukraine is currently desperately trying to mobilize another 160,000 men,” Markus Reisner recently said. The colonel of the Austrian Armed Forces had given an assessment of the situation at the Bundeswehr’s Center for Military History and Social Sciences; it turned out disastrous.
Because of the losses: “The time for the killer robot war in Ukraine has come.”
The 160,000 soldiers he spoke of are missing from the fronts of eastern Ukraine; These personnel gaps are further reinforced by Ukraine’s offensive actions near Kursk. Like the British one Independent reminded again in July, around 250 defense start-ups across Ukraine are working on military robotics – “at secret locations that are usually reminiscent of rural car repair shops,” like the one IndependentAuthors Derek Gatopoulos and Anton Shtuk published.
Tanks, drones, air defense: weapons for Ukraine
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“The time for the killer robot war in Ukraine has come,” wrote author Jess Daly at the same time United24. According to her, the Ukrainian defense sector has emancipated itself from the West and has pushed forward the production of robots in order to take advantage of the waiting time for Western arms deliveries. Therefore, the Ukrainian government had allocated almost 1.4 billion euros for the purchase, production and development of weapons domestically for 2024 – 20 times what was invested before Russia’s invasion – much of the investment is intended for stationary ones as well as mobile combat robots.
Ronald Arkin is a professor at the Georgia Tech College in Atlanta and researches autonomous weapon systems. What is crucial for him is the serving function that robots like this should take on Deutschlandfunk reports, “I think the military wants to send systems out with the troops, like dogs, or mules, or other things in the past that helped soldiers accomplish their mission.”
