Russian military reveals robot tank’s disappointing performance in Syria
BEIRUT, LEBANON (12:00 A.M.) – In a new article published on Sunday,
the National Interest publication said that the Russian military’s Uran-9 robot tank’s performance in Syria had disappointed its commanders.
Citing a report from the
Defense Blog, the National Interest said that Senior Research Officer Andrei Anisimov told a conference at the Kuznetsov Naval Academy in St. Petersburg that the Uran-9’s performance in Syria revealed that “modern Russian combat Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) are not able to perform the assigned tasks in the classical types of combat operations.”
“He concluded it would be ten to fifteen more years before UGVs were ready for such complex tasks,” the National Interest author continued.
“Robotic armored vehicles are in development across the world, with the U.S. Army planning for its Bradley fighting vehicle replacement to be ‘optionally-manned,'” the National Interest author said.
“However, Russia arguably has more aggressively moved towards combat-deploying UGVs. In 2015 Russia’s Military Industry Committee announced its objective of deploying 30 percent of Russia’s kinetic weapons on remote-control platforms by 2025,” adding that “Current projects include the MARS six-seat infantry carrier, the robotic BMP-3 Vihr (“Hurricane”) fighting vehicle, robotized T-72 tanks , and tiny Nerekhta UGVs that can evacuate wounded soldiers, fire a machine gun or kamikaze charge enemy positions.”
The Russian Uran-9 robot tank was often seen in the Deir Ezzor Governorate after the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) cleared an area from the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/IS/Daesh).
