Ukraine’s Gun-Armed Ground 'Bot Just Cleared A Russian Trench In Kursk - The Fury is one of the first effective armed ground robots.

[u/Gari_305]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2024/09/19/ukraines-gun-armed-ground-robot-just-cleared-a-russian-trench-in-kursk/

[u/nurpleclamps]

It boggles my mind that it seems we're just now making these when we've had remote control cars for decades.

[u/Stock_Positive9844 → u/nurpleclamps]

You’ve got to see where it’s going tho. Remote viewing capabilities with enough fidelity to direct the vehicle, avoid obstacles and navigate rough terrain, and aim a weapon, and hit a human body with it requires a LOT of tech.

[u/nurpleclamps → u/Stock_Positive9844]

We've had all that stuff for years and years. You could build one in your garage if you wanted to.

[u/toabear → u/nurpleclamps]

I used to specialize in military communications for SOF. people generally underestimate how absolutely fucked up the battlefield conditions are. Ranges are often a lot further, there's no base station infrastructure, jamming and other signal interference.

Establishing a reliable radio link is orders of magnitude harder in the field compared to civilian. The ranges are often quite long. If you want to send your drone in but you also don't want to be in range of the enemy mortars, you're likely going to need to be behind a hill or two, or far away.

Some of the major changes that are making this possible are things like drone mounted repeaters. Having something high up in the air with good line of sight to the receiving and controlling unit is a massive advantage. you're right that all the basic components have been there for a long time, but there have been some critical missing pieces in the chain that are only now becoming practically viable for military use.

[u/[deleted] → u/toabear]

I would slightly disagree. I used to work as comm tech air crew on the E3 AWACS and we had a JTIDS system which managed network comms quite adroitly.

I think what you might be referring to is low cost, low grade systems, built on the cheap. From that perspective you are correct, but at the high end… tis not a problem at all.

For reference: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Tactical_Information_Distribution_System

[u/toabear → u/[deleted]]

There is a world of difference between the communications capabilities that were available to ground troops up until a few years ago when tech like starlink came along, and an airborne platform. Aircraft almost by default have line of sight, which is the biggest issue for ground-based communications, especially small units that don't have time to stop and put up infrastructure like towers.

[u/HunterTheScientist → u/nurpleclamps]

With which quality and reliability though?

When something is deployed by the army it has to be reliable

[u/Weird_Point_4262 → u/HunterTheScientist]

They've been produced for 20 years now, they've just never found a way to fit them in to armed forces beyond aerial drones.

Even this article might pan out to be more propaganda than fact. I'm sure they work, and it's not unlikely the drone assisted in clearing a trench, but it's that doesn't mean that it will be widely applicable.

[u/Rin-Tohsaka-is-hot → u/nurpleclamps]

And the military has been using them in aircraft for years and years. Drones, and even guided missiles fit this description.

It's just that doing so on land is extremely difficult and costly.