Ukraine Ground Robot Armed With Mines Travels 12 Miles, Blows Up Russian Bunker

Ukraine's 3rd Assault Brigade loaded a ground robot with 12 anti-tank mines, then guided it 12 miles through contested territory to a Russian bunker outside Kupiansk where it blew up, destroying the bunker and all the troops inside it. 

That is an example of why the Russians are not winning in Ukraine. JL

David Axe reports in Trench Art:

The Ukrainian 3rd Assault Brigade’s NC-13 robotics unit piled a dozen 17 pound TM-62s anti-tank mines onto one of its DevDroid TW 12.7s—125-pound tracked unmanned ground vehicles—and carefully steered the UGV into a Russian bunker somewhere south of the ruins of Kupiansk in eastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv Oblast. The team had carefully assembled, painted and deployed the robot over a period of days, maneuvering it more than 12 miles across rough terrain to deliver the explosive payload. It made a very big boom. 

A TM-62 anti-tank mine packs around 17 pounds of explosives—enough to break the track off a passing tank or even punch through the tank’s steel belly.

Twelve TM-62 anti-tank mines pack no less than 204 pounds of explosives. That’s enough to topple a small building.

So when the Ukrainian 3rd Assault Brigade’s NC-13 robotics unit piled a dozen TM-62s onto one of its DevDroid TW 12.7s—125-pound tracked unmanned ground vehicles—and carefully steered the UGV into a Russian bunker presumably somewhere south of the ruins of Kupiansk in eastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv Oblast, it made a very big boom. 

As seen in an official video, the NC-13 team broke into cheers when an escorting aerial drone registered the blast. The team had carefully assembled, painted and deployed the robot apparently over a period of days, maneuvering it more than 12 miles across rough terrain to deliver the explosive payload.

“As a result of which it was possible to destroy an enemy group, and the vacated area was occupied by our infantry,” NC-13 reported. (See video at top.)

This was not the first deployment of kamikaze ground robot in Russia’s 46-month wider war on Ukraine, although it may have been one of the most explosive.