Over the past two years, Russia has received six applications from abroad for the supply of ground military robots.

This was announced by the director of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation Dmitry Shugaev on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

“Since 2019, the FSMTC of Russia has received six requests from foreign customers interested in Russian military ground robotics.

Our partners are greatly interested in the robotic mine-clearing complex "Uran-6", - quotes the words of Shugaev TASS.

The robotic complex "Uran-6" is used for continuous clearance of the terrain.

It can be controlled remotely, at a distance of up to 800 m. The device is equipped with four video cameras providing a 360-degree view.

"Uran-6" is able to withstand explosions up to 4 kg of TNT, as well as to overcome a vertical wall up to 1 m high and a ditch 1.5 m wide. The complex is already being supplied to the troops.

As specified in the Russian Ministry of Defense, "Uran-6" was used in several modern local conflicts.

In addition, work is now underway to create a heavier sapper complex.

The new vehicles will be designed to clear the terrain from more powerful anti-tank mines.

The first prototypes are expected to be released in 2022.

  • "Uran-14"

  • © mil.ru

Uranus is a whole line of vehicles.

In addition to sapper robots, the Russian troops are already using the Uran-9 combat drone.

In April 2021, the Ministry of Defense announced the arrival of a new batch of 20 such vehicles in army units.

The robot is designed to protect personnel and withdraw them from enemy fire.

It is equipped with Ataka anti-tank guided missiles, a 2A72 30-mm automatic cannon and a 7.62-mm machine gun.

"Uran-9" is capable of detecting a target, but the decision to defeat it is made by the commander, who is together with the operator in an armored control center based on the KamAZ chassis.

“The maximum distance of the control point from the robot is 3 km.

In the case of the simultaneous use of four combat robots, the control range reaches 6 km.

"Uran-9" is integrated into a unified tactical control system, with protection from unauthorized access and electronic warfare, "- says the website of the Ministry of Defense.

The military department also noted that "Uranus-9" "showed itself excellently during the military operation in Syria."

In addition, a new robotic fire extinguishing system Uran-14 was used at the Kavkaz-2020 exercises held last year.

It was created for remote extinguishing of fires at hazardous and hard-to-reach facilities.

The complex is equipped with water tanks with a capacity of 2000 liters and a foaming agent with a capacity of 600 liters.

All three machines are designed and manufactured by the Krasnogorsk enterprise "766 Management of production and technological equipment" ("766 UPTK"). 

On land, under water and in the air

It should be noted that Russian developments in the field of robotics are not limited to ground-based models.

So, at the moment in the Russian Federation a whole series of unmanned aerial vehicles, endowed with elements of artificial intelligence, is being created.

The most complex of them is the S-70 Okhotnik heavy-class attack drone.

It is being developed by Sukhoi (part of the United Aircraft Corporation - UAC).

There is very little information about this machine in the public domain.

It is known that the drone is made according to the "flying wing" scheme with the use of "stealth" technology.

The takeoff weight of the vehicle is presumably up to 20 tons, and the maximum flight speed can reach 1,000 km / h.

  • UAV S-70 "Okhotnik"

  • © Wikimedia

It can be used both separately and in a group with the fifth generation Su-57 fighter.

At the same time, the fighter pilot will be able, according to media reports, to take control of up to four S-70s.

Another promising development is the Thunder unmanned aerial vehicle, which is being created at Kronstadt JSC.

He will be able to control a swarm of ten lightning drones in reconnaissance and strike configurations.

In this case, reconnaissance "Lightning" will be returned, and the percussion units work on the principle of kamikaze drones.

The Thunder drone will have four suspension points.

With a takeoff weight of 7 tons, it will be able to deliver a payload weighing 1.3 tons over a distance of up to 800 km.

In addition, the UAV will be able to use a wide range of weapons, including the new Izdeye 85 aircraft guided missile and the KAB-250 and KAB-500 guided bombs.

In 2020, Thunder was first presented at the Army 2020 forum.

  • Drone "Thunder"

  • RIA News

  • © Grigory Sysoev

The Kronshtadt company also develops the Orion, Sirius and Pacer drones. 

Other companies are also developing unmanned aircraft, for example the Izhevsk enterprise ZALA AERO (part of the Kalashnikov concern).

In addition to aircraft and ground vehicles, the Poseidon underwater drone was also created in Russia.

Its development was first announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin in March 2018 in a message to the Federal Assembly.

Then the head of state said that these drones can be equipped with both conventional and nuclear weapons and will be capable of destroying enemy infrastructure, ship groupings and other targets.

In addition to creating unmanned vehicles from scratch, programs for robotizing existing equipment are also being implemented in Russia.

One of the examples of such developments is the Udar robot, created on the basis of the BMP-3 by the Kovrov All-Russian Research Institute “Signal” (part of the High-Precision Complexes holding).

This complex can operate under crew control, remote control, or go into autonomous mode.

Depending on the layout, "Udar" is capable of performing both strike functions and tasks of reconnaissance, technical and logistic support.

  • Robot "Strike"

  • © rostec.ru

In turn, Uralvagonzavod is developing the Shturm robotic complex based on the T-72B3 tank chassis.

Russian developments in the field of robotics were highly appreciated by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

In May, he announced that serial production of combat robots with artificial intelligence had begun in the Russian Federation.

“There are no longer just experimental samples, but robots that can really be shown in science fiction films when they are able to fight on their own,” the minister said during the New Knowledge marathon.

He added that a lot of work is currently underway in the country in the field of "weapons of tomorrow".

"The concept of modern combat"

As the founder of the Military Russia portal Dmitry Kornev noted, countries that traditionally buy weapons from the Russian Federation could be interested in Uran-6 robots.

“Russia has friendly and strong military-technical ties with a number of countries in the Middle East and North Africa, for example, with Algeria, Egypt, Syria, which may be interested in purchasing this equipment due to the presence of minefields on their territories.

India, Mozambique and Venezuela, countries with which Russia has fairly good military-technical ties, may also be interested in buying, "the analyst said in a conversation with RT.

In turn, military expert Yuri Knutov added that the Uran-9 and Shturm systems also have export potential.

“These machines may be of interest to foreign customers.

For example, "Shturm" was created on the basis of T-72 tanks, which are well known all over the world.

In general, Russia has a fairly large range of unmanned systems, which is regularly updated.

Some Russian air defense systems, such as Pantsir, are already half-robotic today.

Work is also underway on the complete robotization of the Tor installations, the expert said in an interview with RT.

According to experts, in the coming years, robotization and systems based on artificial intelligence technologies will become increasingly important for the state's defense capability.

“In the foreseeable future, robotics and artificial intelligence technologies will become one of the main industries in the military sphere, so Russia is doing the right thing that today it is actively investing in this area. At the same time, the state not only creates robotics, but learns to apply it and tries to build the information infrastructure in such a way that the use of this kind of technology is effective. Russia is not just trying to create many robots, but is trying to harmoniously fit them into the concept of modern combat and train the Russian armed forces to use it, ”concluded Dmitry Kornev.