A Ukrainian manufacturer developed a roving turret with two Kalashnikov assault rifles for its main armament, as Kyiv aims to build more cheap ground drones to fill dangerous infantry roles.
The uncrewed ground vehicle was recently used in combat by the Security Service of Ukraine’s Alpha Group special forces to destroy a Russian ambush drone, said the country’s defense tech incubator, Brave1, on Thursday.
“Why the Kalashnikov? The reason is simple: It’s the most widely available small arm across our military units,” the incubator wrote in a social media post, adding that using the assault rifle allowed its forces to “rapidly scale” the drones on the front lines.
Neither the drone nor the manufacturer was named, though Brave1 said the drone’s creator is a member of its platform. The Kalashnikov design was built for a technical brief issued by Brave1.
More than five Ukrainian units are operationally testing the drone, Brave1 added.
Footage of the turret shows the two Kalashnikov rifles mounted closely to each other on a frame attached to a pan-and-tilt gimbal, which in turn rests on a four-wheeled platform.
Each rifle appears to be modified behind the grip and trigger guard to remotely receive fire commands, though no other significant tweaks are visible.
Notably, Brave1 showed clips of a person manually reloading one of the Kalashnikovs with a box magazine and then racking the bolt, indicating that the turret’s current design still requires a soldier nearby to help it stay in a prolonged fight.
Ukraine has been developing uncrewed ground vehicles for all manner of tasks, including ground assault, artillery cover, casualty evacuation, mine-clearing, and logistics for years.
They’ve been a major, though not complete, solution for its shortage of soldiers on the front lines and forward areas, which have become saturated with drones and deadly to cross or navigate.
The new Kalashnikov turret points to a Ukrainian emphasis on building cheaper, simpler systems to be built quickly for the war.
“We are scaling cheap combat UGVs and robotizing the front line to reduce risks to our infantry,” Brave1 said in its post.
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