Text settings Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only Learn more Minimize to nav In the latest twist on battlefield innovations, Ukraine has used both flying drone carriers and drone boats to send ground robots armed with weapons or explosives into battle.
The drone-assisted deployments have enabled slower wheeled robots to bypass tough terrain and Russian defenses, and to carry out an unusual robotic amphibious assault on a contested position. Such tactics also showcase the Ukrainian military’s ongoing experimentation with using drones and robots to offset a Russian military advantage in manpower while also sparing Ukrainian soldiers from making dangerous assaults.
On July 19, a Russian military Telegram channel posted a video showing a Ukrainian hexacopter drone carrying a ground robot suspended below by a cable, according to the Ukrainian government-run news platform United24. The Russian Telegram channel described the Ukrainian heavy bomber drone as deploying a four-wheeled ARK-1 robot armed with explosive anti-tank mines on the ground where it continued toward Russian military positions—and apparently generated plenty of outraged comments from pro-Kremlin social media users.
It’s unclear how successful that particular mission was. But the tactic could improve the survivability of ground robots by helping them evade Russian aerial surveillance and drone strikes while closing with their targets more quickly. The ARK-1 robot can roll along at a top speed of nearly 28 miles per hour, although some robots are considerably slower.
Ukrainian ground robots also joined a Ukrainian military operation on June 25 that targeted the Kinburn Spit, a sandy and narrow peninsula that extends westward into the Black Sea and is connected to the Russian-occupied left bank of the Kherson Oblast.
Russian military forces captured the Kinburn Spit in June 2022 and set up positions there to help control southern Ukraine’s port access to the Black Sea, although they began withdrawing from the peninsula in early June as Ukraine’s mid- and long-range drone strike campaigns strained Russian supply lines.
During the June 25 operation, a Ukrainian drone boat lowered a landing ramp to drop off a ground robot on the still-contested Kinburn Spit, according to a video shared by the Ukrainian government on July 13. The remotely controlled robot proceeded to fire its machine gun during apparently “mild” fighting that resulted in a Ukrainian flag-planting demonstration on the contested peninsula, according to Michael Bohnert, a defense researcher at the RAND Corporation think tank, in a social media post. Although Bohnert described it as an impressive feat, he also cautioned that the amphibious robotic assault concept is probably not yet ready for heavy combat scenarios.
Such feats come as Ukraine has orchestrated a battlefield surge of ground robots since late 2025 and demonstrated how teams of drones and robots can overcome Russian military positions on their own. Ukraine’s military robotic missions have ramped up from just under 7,500 missions in January to more than 16,600 missions in June, with robots transporting supplies, evacuating wounded soldiers, clearing or laying mines, and directly engaging in combat operations, according to United24.
Drones carrying robots into battle are also just the latest examples of Ukrainian tactical innovations that have emerged since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The Ukrainian military has also been using large flying drones as motherships to carry explosive FPV drones into battle, and has even sent high-altitude balloons deep into Russia to drop one-way attack drones and missiles near their targets. The Russian military has followed suit with its own carrier drones.
Ukraine has also equipped drone boats with the capability to deploy swarms of FPV drones to attack Russian military positions near the coast of the contested Black Sea. A campaign of Ukrainian drone strikes has already effectively stopped Russian shipping of fuel, grain and other supplies through the Sea of Azov.
Meanwhile, the US military has been looking to Ukraine’s example in many cases while seeking to procure a new generation of drones. The US military even sent its own kamikaze drone boats into combat for the first time during the ongoing war with Iran, which continues to severely disrupt the crucial shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz.
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