BY PATRICK TUCKER
On Monday, Ukrainian military leaders and defense industry officials showed off their experimental Phantom robot at the Association of the U.S. Army show in Washington, D.C. Currently in testing, the Phantom could be sent into action against Russian-backed forces as early as next year, It has an extendable frame that can be outfitted with treads like a tank or with six wheels, anti-tank weapons, grenade launchers, machine guns or more. Ukrainian military leaders and defense industry officials said.
Russia, too, has a wide array of ground bots it could dispatch to the conflict, though Moscow has not signaled its readiness to do that. But Russian drones of the flying variety have been used to tremendous effect there. They identify enemy positions to target fires. They hijack cell-tower signals to deliver false messages and texts, an effect experienced by Ukrainian soldiers and even NATO soldiers outside the country.
Meanwhile, the Russians have been quite up-front about using ground robots in Syria, although Russian media outlets reporting on their missions have been all over the map. Such unmanned ground vehicles, or UGVs, include the Platforma-M, the Nerehta, and the Uran-9. Still, the Russians are not known to have deployed UGVs in destabilization war against their Western neighbor.
http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2017/10/armed-ground-robots-could-make-their-combat-debut-ukrainian-conflict-next-year/141677/?oref=d-river
