Ukrainian troops have carried out what is described as the first logistics mission using a domestically developed amphibious uncrewed ground vehicle, covering more than 40km over land and water to deliver rations and ammunition to positions, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence.
The mission was flown, or rather driven and swum, by personnel from one of the separate mechanised brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The department said the vehicle retained the cross-country mobility of a conventional ground robot on land and could transition to water within seconds before continuing.
Water is the reason the capability exists in the first place, and according to the ministry, rivers, canals and marshy ground along the front complicate or entirely block routes for ordinary uncrewed ground vehicles, while resupply from the air is not always the better answer. Putting both modes on one platform removes the need to plan around obstacles or to hand a load between systems partway along a route.
The vehicle was refined over several months in cooperation with the units that would use it, drawing on real missions, operational experience and the particular characteristics of front-line terrain. Development was supported through grant funding from Brave1, the Ukrainian defence innovation cluster, which introduced a dedicated amphibious uncrewed ground vehicle track within its grant programme in June.
The ministry stated: “We are expanding the capabilities of robotic systems so that Ukrainian service members have more technological tools to carry out combat missions.”
Ground robots have moved quickly from novelty to routine in Ukrainian service. The department has previously reported that its forces more than tripled their use of uncrewed ground vehicles for logistics and casualty evacuation, work driven by the same pressure that has reshaped so much of the war, namely that the last few kilometres into a position are watched continuously by drones and that anything moving along them in daylight is liable to be struck.
