UGV With a Machine Gun Replaced Infantry and Held a Position for a Month and Half

The Droid TW 12.7 unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) under the control of operators of the NC13 company of the 3rd Assault Brigade replaced one of the infantry positions and held the position for a month and a half.

The commander of the NC13 UGV company told this in an interview with the drone manufacturer DevDroid.

According to the soldier, the task of the machine-gun UGV was to control an intersection from a certain settlement, from where enemy forces were occasionally moving in. Every morning, the operators took the robot to the position for combat duty and returned it in the evening.

In total, the duties lasted for a month and a half. During this month and a half, the Droid TW 12.7 successfully completed several missions against the enemy. In the end, the invaders were unable to pass through this area and remained under constant fire from the UGV.

“In general, if we speak about the attack UGVs as a tool, such means can support infantry units, both to help them during offensive actions and to cover them during defense. That is, they can relieve some of the burden from infantrymen,” summarizes the commander of the NC13 strike UGV company.

According to the serviceman, they are now trying to move the operators of the UGVs further away from the front line, out of the combat zone, as they are specialists who take a lot of time to train.

Work is also underway to use not single units, but groups of strike UGVs with 2-4 drones during assault operations. To coordinate such an operation, it is necessary for drone operators to be “in the same room and to be able to control them all quickly.”

Droid TW 12.7

The Droid TW 12.7 is a ground robotic system manufactured by DevDroid, which is armed with a combat module with a 12.7 mm M2 Browning machine gun.

The UGV was codified by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine at the end of 2024 and, in addition to digital communication, has integration with Starlink and LTE.

According to the commander of the NC13 company, a feature of this model is the user-friendly software that allows for the distribution of robot control among several people.

“We can use one operator to control the turret and the platform, we can use two operators, or we can distribute the control to a third computer for the commander,” he said.

In general, it takes from one month to one and a half to train an operator of a ground robotic strike system from scratch. While an experienced operator of the UGV will master it in a week.