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Ukrainian forces said they used an M2 Browning combat robot to shoot down a Russian MT-LB.
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Footage shows the UGV firing .50 caliber rounds at its target on a street at night.
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Such drones are increasingly appearing on the battlefield as a substitute for human soldiers.
A Ukrainian brigade has released footage of one of its unmanned ground vehicles opening fire on a Russian armored personnel carrier, offering a rare glimpse of the emerging technology in action.
The 5th Separate Assault Brigade said on Wednesday that it deployed a Droid TW 12.7 — a remotely operated tracked system developed by a Ukrainian defense technology company — on a road deemed likely to be a route for advancing Russian troops.
The brigade said the ground-based drone later encountered a Russian MT-LB, a light armored fighting vehicle often used to transport infantry.
Thermal footage filmed at night by the unmanned ground vehicle, or UGV, shows it opening fire on the vehicle, its operator rotating a reticle aimed at the front of the MT-LB.
Business Insider could neither independently verify when nor where the footage was filmed.
The Droid TW 12.7 is equipped with an M2 Browning machine that fires .50 caliber rounds, which typically pierce the armor of an MT-LB.
The 5th Brigade said it used armor-piercing incendiary rounds for the mission.
Sparks fly from the chassis of the armored vehicle as it slows to a crawl and drifts in front of the UGV, which continues to fire indiscriminately.
“The 12.7 mm bullets punch through the side of the MT-LB, hitting the crew and the systems on board,” said a narrator in the 5th Brigade video, referring to the metric measurement for .50 caliber bullets.
The MT-LB appears to be crawling aimlessly next to the drone, indicating that its driver is incapacitated or its controls are damaged.
The UGV then turns and starts firing at the rear of the MT-LB, “killing the infantry in the troop compartment,” the narrator said.
The 5th Brigade said that in the morning it found that the crew of the MT-LB and their passengers were completely killed, and published short clips of the aftermath shot by a first-person aerial drone.
The footage released Wednesday provides a glimpse into how UGVs are increasingly being used on the battlefield in Ukraine, where troops on both sides are experimenting with ground drones to carry out missions that human soldiers must otherwise do.
While official statistics show that unmanned aerial vehicles still dominated the drone warfare space last month, the proliferation of UGVs offers a possible future where Kyiv could rely on remotely operated systems for ground operations instead of risking its troops.
This year, Ukraine said it aims to manufacture and deploy at least 15,000 UGVs across the battlefield.
Ukrainian and Russian teams have developed hundreds of such systems, ranging from buggies that can carry supplies near the front lines to trucks equipped with remotely operated machine guns.
The 5th brigade and DevDroid, the company that makes the Droid TW 12.7, did not respond to requests for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.
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