Britain’s biggest defense company BAE Systems has released interesting reports about unmanned ground vehicles and autonomous systems, reported analyst Abraxas Spa at his Twitter account.
According to BAE Systems, modern Russia’s combat drone has serious disadvantages. The report contains an analysis of the Russian unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) Uran-9 and stressed that it is not able to perform the assigned tasks in the classical types of combat operations.
Also noted that the Uran-9 combat UGV is unreliable, thermal and electro-optical sensors proved incapable of spotting enemies beyond 1.25 miles. Sensors and the weapons they guided were useless while the Uran-9 was moving due to a lack of stabilization and when fire commands were issued, there were significant delays.
Furthermore, 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 Uran-9 is designed to conduct remote reconnaissance and provide fire support for all-arms, reconnaissance and anti-terror units. The vehicle comprises two reconnaissance and fire support robots, a prime mover for their transportation and a mobile control post.
The reconnaissance and fire support robots are armed with a 2A72 30mm automatic gun with a 7.62 coaxial machinegun and Ataka anti-tank guided missiles. The vehicle’s armament may vary, depending on the customer’s requirements.
The robots are equipped with a laser radiation warning system and equipment designed to detect, identify and track targets.