Ukraine Approves D-21 Ground Drone for Military Use

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has officially codified and approved the D-21 ground robotic system for use by the Armed Forces.

This was reported by the FRDM GROUP, the drone’s developer.

In a post on its official Facebook page, the company also noted that the D-21 recently took part in the Long-Range UGV Challenge competition organized by the Brave1 defense technology cluster.

The D-21 is a remotely controlled wheeled logistics platform designed to transport supplies and evacuate wounded personnel from the battlefield.

Testing was conducted in two phases to evaluate various operational capabilities of the vehicle.

In the first stage, 50 Ukrainian-developed ground drones were required to traverse a 10 km off-road course, which included forested terrain and exposure to electronic warfare systems.

“As a result, the D-21 stopped at 5,800 meters, despite its official specifications listing a maximum distance of 5,000 meters,” the company reported.

The second stage tested the platform’s endurance under full load. The D-21 is rated to carry up to 200 kg. During the test, it began operating with a 75% battery charge and completed an 18 km route while fully loaded—significantly exceeding its stated performance.

“For the D-21, this is 200 kg. Moreover, it had to overcome the maximum distance before the batteries were completely discharged. The robot started with a 75% battery charge and confidently covered 18 km with maximum load. Although the characteristics include a much shorter distance at full charge,” FRDM GROUP said.

The D-21 can operate in both manual and autonomous modes, following a predetermined route at a set speed.

If required, it can be fitted with a remote-controlled weapon station equipped with a machine gun, allowing the drone to engage enemy targets.

Earlier this year, Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov announced the development of the D-21-11 unmanned ground platform, a variant armed with a machine gun during trials.