One Robot Detonates, Another Fires Grenades. This Is Russia's New Tactic For All-'Bot Assaults.

The Russians claim they're now deploying all-unmanned assault groups.

A Russian Courier UGV. Via Samuel Bendett

One year after a Ukrainian brigade reportedly organized the first all-robot assault on a Russian position in Ukraine, a Russian brigade has allegedly duplicated the feat.

Emphasis on “allegedly,” as there isn’t any hard evidence yet. “No actual footage of this attack is public,” noted Samuel Bendett, an analyst with CNA in Virginia.

To be fair, no public footage of that first Ukrainian assault exists, either—although there is footage of similar Ukrainian all-robot attacks that took place early this year. (See video below.) More recently, a Ukrainian gun-’bot engaged and likely damaged a Russian armored vehicle during a chance encounter.

The purported robotic assault by the Russian 11th Separate Guards Airborne Assault Brigade reportedly took place in Zaporizhzhia Oblast in southern Ukraine.

First, the Russian brigade rolled in a Lyagushka wheeled unmanned ground vehicle hauling an “explosive device,” likely an anti-tank mine. After that UGV exploded, a second and larger UGV—a tracked Courier fitted with an AGS-17 automatic grenade launcher—crawled in.

“The complex, having overcome the engineering barriers, struck the soldiers of the armed forces [of Ukraine] who remained at the positions,” the Kremlin claimed. Finally, a second Courier laid mines in the area “to thwart possible enemy counterattacks.”