- Ukraine recently shared footage showing its drones attack two Russian grenade-launching robots.
- Two quadcopter drones can be seen on video blowing up Russia's unmanned ground vehicles, or UGVs.
Newly released footage shows Ukrainian quadcopter drones blowing up Russian grenade-launching robots, offering a rare glimpse of unmanned systems fighting each other on the battlefield.
Ukraine's 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade said that its forces used first-person view, or FPV, drones carrying explosives to destroy two of Russia's "ground robot platforms" that were equipped with automatic grenade launchers. These Soviet-designed weapons can fire 30mm grenades at targets.
In a video capturing the incident, which the 47th published to the Telegram messaging app on Saturday, the two Russian ground robots are seen operating near the war-torn city of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine.
The footage starts by showing the Ukrainian FPV drone hovering near one of the robots, which has a tiny Russian flag on its back and, like the other, isn't moving, indicating the unmanned vehicle may already have been disabled. The FPV drone then descends on the robot and detonates, blowing the flag right off.
The footage then pivots to the second robot sitting nearby amid a sweeping pile of debris, including what looks like a heavily damaged armored vehicle. Another FPV drone is seen hovering above before flying into the robot and detonating, creating an even larger explosion.
A video of the Ukrainian drones incapacitating Russian combat UGVs in yesterday's battle in the Avdiiv direction. https://t.co/mjQBA6c5hr https://t.co/2Orep1fTPk pic.twitter.com/H4QFlsEQBm
— Samuel Bendett (@sambendett) March 30, 2024
Small quadcopter drones rigged with explosives have played a significant role in the Ukraine war and have been frequently used by both sides in one-way attacks on the enemy's personnel and armor. This engagement, however, captures the less-common occurrence of drone-on-drone combat. There are no people involved beyond piloting the systems.
Saturday's engagement also underscores the emerging role of unmanned ground vehicles, or UGVs, in the war. These small systems have been used to plant landmines, deliver ammunition to troops, conduct casualty evacuations, and remove explosives from the battlefield.
"So far, these are isolated cases of the Russians using such a technique," the 47th wrote on Telegram of its assault on Saturday, although the specific activity in reference was not immediately clear. Business Insider was unable to immediately verify the claims made in the post.
Samuel Bendett, an expert on drones and Russian military capabilities at the Center for Naval Analyses think tank, said there is a "rapid proliferation" of small combat and logistics UGVs in Ukraine, but these systems can be easily identified and destroyed because there are so many drones watching the battlefield from above. Such has been the case for manned vehicles as well.
"What we will witness is the use of many, cheap, light UGVs like those in this video that can be quickly put together, potentially quickly lost if necessary, and quickly replaced," Bendett wrote in a Sunday thread posted to X, referencing the video published by the 47th.
He said it's unclear if the Russian UGVs in the video were sent into battle instead of soldiers or in tandem with them. But "as more UGVs will enter combat, both sides will try to develop tactics and concepts for integrating them in assault/battlefield operations," he added.
Beyond operations on the ground and in the air, where unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, reign, drones have played a prominent role in a third domain of the bloody Ukraine war: at sea.
Ukraine has relied heavily on a fleet of unmanned surface vehicles, or USVs, packed with explosives to deal tremendous damage to Russia's Black Sea Fleet — compensating for Kyiv's lack of a proper navy of its own. It is an asymmetrical style of warfare that Moscow has been unable to consistently defend against.