Soldiers from Ukraine's 3rd Separate Assault Brigade have been testing unmanned ground vehicles in minus 21 degrees Celsius, developing combat tactics that have no precedent in military history, the New Statesman has reported from a wooded training ground near the front line, as cited by "Hvylya".
The New Statesman's Will Lloyd witnessed eight soldiers from the brigade's Unmanned Ground Vehicle Company preparing their latest equipment: a remote-controlled box the size of a large fridge, mounted on caterpillar tracks. The machines are used for evacuating casualties, delivering supplies to soldiers in foxholes, and engaging Russian positions with 12.7mm machine guns.
"We are making history here," said a communications officer in the brigade, identified by his call sign "Disney," describing the UGV program. He stressed there was "no rulebook, no real record of using these machines in combat, no accepted tactical doctrine for their deployment."
The testing conditions were brutal. Icicles hung from the soldiers' facial hair, and one man scratched irritably at his eye after his eyelids had frozen shut. The scene unfolded in a clearing surrounded by pine trees, with pick-up trucks parked nearby and caterpillar tracks crunching through the snow.
The UGV development fits a broader pattern of Ukrainian technological innovation born from necessity. Small teams of engineers working at speed have changed the face of warfare since 2022, finding ways to fight a larger enemy with less manpower amid catastrophic demographic losses. The cost-effective capacity to build, operate, and kill with drones and unmanned systems has become a hallmark of the Ukrainian resistance.
The officer escorting journalists to the site was himself a testament to the war's transformation of ordinary Ukrainians. Not a natural soldier, "Disney" broke up technical briefings to admit he simply missed "driving his car around Kyiv at night, drinking coffee and chatting up girls."
Also read: Drone Revolution: Ukraine Deployed Ground Robots and Unlocked a New Strike Capability.