Armed robots take to the battlefield in Ukraine war

Have you visited us yet? Fridays from 5 pm at Tanunda Recreational Park. Visitors are welcome. 

Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, the war in Ukraine has developed into a high-tech conflict.

Now, Ukraine has embarked on a massive programme to deploy armed robots on the ground.

Uncrewed ground vehicles (UGVs), or ground robot systems as they are known in Ukrainian military parlance, have already proven their worth.

There have been reports of UGVs successfully repelling Russian attacks and even taking enemy soldiers prisoner.

Ukrainian and Russian killer robots are even said to have clashed without humans being present at the site of the battle.

"Robot wars are already happening," says Oleksandr Afanasiev from the Ukrainian army's K2 brigade. He commands its UGV battalion - the world's first, he says.

One way in which the brigade has been using these robots is by mounting Kalashnikov machine guns on top.

"They open fire on a battlefield where an infantryman would be afraid to turn up. But a UGV is happy to risk its existence," Maj Afanasiev says.

Read more here.