Russia is experimenting in Ukraine's robot war with uncrewed rocket launchers, hoverboards, and a box on wheels
- Russia has increasingly been trialing new types of ground drones as Ukraine's robot war heats up.
- Designs include a "dronobus" for fiber optic drones, a chair on a buggy, and a box on wheels.
- Russian officials say they want to exponentially scale up ground combat drone production.
Ukraine's drone industry has developed a wide array of new uncrewed ground vehicles, but Russian forces are innovating with their own designs, too.
While Moscow has been testing remote ground-based weapons since the early years of the war, a wider variety of rudimentary — and sometimes unusual — designs have been emerging this summer.
Take, for example, a remote-controlled four-wheel buggy that pro-Russian Telegram channels called an "assault" Termit drone from a battalion of the 58th Guards Combined Arms Army.
Instead of a weapons system, it's fitted with a chair that can accommodate a single soldier. Its rear can stow weapons, food, and water containers, the popular Russian Telegram channel Military Informant wrote in a post on Wednesday.
Notably, this Termit drone variant leaves the soldier completely exposed.