Russian company Uralvagonzavod (UVZ) is developing two unmanned variants of the T-72B3 main battle tank (MBT), the Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced on its website on 12 August.
One variant “is a crewless combat vehicle with heavy weapons, the second is a crewless combat vehicle with automatic guns,” the MoD said.
UVZ chief designer Andrei Terlikov showed the robotic vehicles to Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu when he visited Workshop 130, which produces all of Russia’s MBTs, on 12 August.
“Robot tanks do not need crews. Robots without human intervention will detect enemy weapons, destroy them, designate targets,” UVZ said in a summary of press coverage of the visit published on its website on 16 August. “Artificial intelligence of machines is able to systematise and analyse intelligence data, [and] make decisions independently.” This indicates that Russia intends to develop an unmanned MBT without the need for a human in the loop.