Ukraine deploys robotic machine gunner that held back Russian troops for weeks
Ukrainian forces held back Russian troops on the front line with the use of an unmanned robot machine gun drone.
Listen to this article
Ukraine's Third Army Corps put a secret weapon on the battlefield in the form of The DevDroid TW 12.7.
It is effectively a robotic mini tank with a .50-calibre M2 Browning machine gun - and it can be piloted by a soldier as far as 15 miles away. It also has AI capabilities that allow it to tackle rugged terrain automatically.
The machine-gun droid was deployed in multiple positions during its 45-day stint, leaving briefly every two days for maintenance and to reload its ammunition. These tasks are performed by a team over two miles behind the front line.
Mykola “Makar” Zinkevych, the commander of the NC-13 Strike Company which operates the drone, told the Telegraph: “The enemy conducted daily offensive pressure on forward positions.
Read more: Iran cancels 800 executions after Trump threats, White House claims
“Wherever it is possible to replace a live soldier with a UGV, it should be done.
“Until the very end, the enemy was unable to determine that an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) with a combat module was present at the position,” he said.
“No electronic intelligence intercepts on this matter were recorded and the UGV itself was never hit.”
The ground drone was deployed during a period of poor weather and visibility where Russian forces were trying to push through Ukrainian lines when they couldn’t be seen by conventional airborne drones.