ListNook

InformalYesterday760 Apr 15, 2026 +657

Man, the Vatniks are not gonna like this. They've loved to drone on (pun intended) about how Ukraine's front was just days from falling apart due to manpower shortages. Jokes on them, they're replacing soldiers with machines wherever possible. To the Vatniks, remember - the VDV was an air assault force that failed to successfully accomplish their air assault mission on Hostomel airport without insane losses. - the black sea navy was scared into port by a country without a navy. The Moskva is a reef now. - Russia is resorting to sending waves of men to die in Ukrainian fields. The MiGhTy RuSsiAn bear can't even win a land war across its own border.

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BasedMaduro Apr 15, 2026 +152

To add to the VDV, wasn't the entire VDV force wiped out in the first year of the war? They are an extinct species now.

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InformalYesterday760 Apr 15, 2026 +128

They lost some insane numbers at Hostomel and I believe in some later attacks. Folks try and act like Hostomel failing wasn't a failing on them but I don't know what to say - their objective was to secure the airport for larger transport planes to deliver more troops, and they failed at this. The failure is at all levels of Russia's war planning, and ended up with their ELiTe AiR AsSaULt troops getting surrounded and destroyed, but there is no way to act like the VDV didn't fail miserably at their objective.

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Cookie_Eater108 Apr 15, 2026 +69

I dont want to d******* what you're saying but I wanted to also commend the admirable defense that the Ukrainians did which put up significant hurdles to the Hostomel assault being successful as well. It seems, atleast to me, like this was a scenario in which their military planners had anticipated and had a game plan for the moment it happened. Hostomel in that respect turned into a bit of an ambush. Any force, no matter how elite, is going to have a rough time when your opposing force already has a game plan for the exact thing you're about to do.

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InformalYesterday760 Apr 15, 2026 +48

Not taking away from the Ukrainians, in fact I'd argue that their defence was even more impressive because they weren't well defended/ set up for the assault and still performed amazingly in the defence. The number of original defenders was fairly small compared to the attackers, and I believe reinforcements simply came from nearby military bases that Russia had to have known about. I think the defenders had a single ZU23 gun, and a couple Manpads. It wasn't like the defenders had countless AA options and hundreds of professional soldiers and vehicles at the airport.

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socialistrob Apr 16, 2026 +6

Russia assumed they could quickly go in, establish air superiority and the Ukrainian forces would suffer from mass defections enabling them to be quickly overrun and destroyed. In the opening days of the war Ukraine was able to keep their air defense up and running and knocked out a lot of Russian fighters and helicopters which threw the rest of the Russian plans into chaos. Not only did Ukrainian air defense survive but for the first couple days Russia couldn't really distinguish between Russian and Ukrainian planes so the Russians turned off their air defense enabling Ukraine to use drones to get strikes in which should never have been possible. When the Ukrainian forces didn't surrender and retreat the Russians found themselves facing hardened resistance with a force way to small too capture the country. The Russian forces that survived the landing at hostumel found themselves outnumbered, cut off and without immediate reinforcements. For the average VDV soldier at Hostumel there was nothing they could do.

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PerilousFun Apr 15, 2026 +21

The VDV suffered catastrophic losses to the point they effectively had to rebuild the unit whole cloth.

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BrainBlowX Apr 15, 2026 +19

The VDV is basically gone, at least the elite force that existed before. They were a respectfully skilled force- as ukrainian soldiers will vouch- but the incompetents in the kremlin then used them all throughout 2022-2023 to shore up any gaps in russian lines over and over, even for jobs not suited to light infantry. And they did their job, but were eviscerated bit by bit especially due to misuse. Many training units were also sacrificed, which slows the rebuilding process further. And now with the new FPV drone war their status is in question. They are elite light infantry, but are as easily torn to shreds as anyone else if used for frontal assaults.

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NOTRadagon Apr 16, 2026 +1

I remember hearing that Russia's top tank company had to be replaced like, 3 times before 2024 *alone*, I'm sure the VDV had to be reconstructed a few times.

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Inevitable_Speed_943 Apr 15, 2026 -15

No, a force of 40,000 wasn’t wiped out in one year of fighting. They fought in Zaporizhzhia, Kursk, and continue to fight in the most active parts of the front.

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BrainBlowX Apr 15, 2026 +12

Not in one year, no. *Two to three.* They were a prominent feature since russian commanders used them to save badly performing fronts over and over, even throwing them against mechanized forces. And you don't even need to lose most of your soldiers to be militarily considered ineffective or even effectively neutralized as a fighting force. Since 2024 you hardly hear of them anymore. "Elite light infantry" can only do so much on offense in the current drone war landscape, and I would be suspicious of their recruitment and training standards in the last few years. I would at this point expect them to be used more like how the Rosgvardia was used early in the war, securing the rear.

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Inevitable_Speed_943 Apr 15, 2026 -4

I disagree. To this day, VDV are utilized like Azov and other “firefighting” units. Additionally, like Azov, they tend to attract higher-quality recruits. Both sides have been using their elite infantry more conservatively due to drones, but less so with Ukraine because of large infantry losses.

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BrainBlowX Apr 15, 2026 +3

Azov was like 800 people at the start of the war. Yes, the VDV was used as firefighting units. Conatantlt. All the time. And now they are harsly ever msntioned, and I can't recall the last time they ever were reliably reportes to have made an actual difference anywhere besides being crowd control for the meat waves from the rear.

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Seeteuf3l Apr 15, 2026 -3

I don't know what this is based to? Basically since initial landing ops they've fought as normal infantry.

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welshwelsh Apr 15, 2026 +10

Love it. A bit off topic but I hope we can stop complaining about falling birthrates now. If robots can replace infantry, they can do anything and that means we don't need masses of low paid workers to sustain the economy anymore.

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GrimHoly Apr 15, 2026 +33

That would also mean we will have mass unemployment and wage compression….

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happy123z Apr 15, 2026 +5

OR UBI AND CHILL, BABY! 😎💰

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Zwets Apr 16, 2026 +2

He's demanding money from government! Send in the swat robots!

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GrimHoly Apr 15, 2026 +4

Good luck with that

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danidas Apr 15, 2026 +2

Or the invention of Soylent Green so good the rich are willing to eat it.

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No-Subject4928 Apr 15, 2026 +1

[ Removed by Listnook ]

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chronoflect Apr 15, 2026 +1

Falling birthrates are a problem when you hinge social welfare programs for older generations on the increased economic output of younger generations. This is only solved by robots if the robots pay taxes.

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NeedsMoreSpaceships Apr 15, 2026 +3

Or the robots ~~murder~~ _look after_ the old people

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Toads_Of_Fun Apr 16, 2026 +1

You mean they succesfully failed to accomplish the mission.

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InformalYesterday760 Apr 16, 2026 +2

Lol Classic Russian success "Good news comrade, our men are at the airfield" Amazing! They've secured it for the next wave of troops? "Ah, sorry. Should have said our men's *bodies* are at the airfield"

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artnoi43 Apr 16, 2026 +1

“b.. b..but, all this is possible only because Ukraine got the West’s assistance” - the Vatniks

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[deleted] Apr 15, 2026 -14

[deleted]

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Cookie_Eater108 Apr 15, 2026 +13

Both can be true. I get the feeling that in certain parts of the conflict, you're likely going to see treelines turn into trench lines reminiscent of WWI. Capturing a position one week and losing it next week just to capture it again.

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InformalYesterday760 Apr 15, 2026 +13

Throw enough mens lives at the front and you'll advance X distance. But X/ man is *horrible*, like genuinely awful. Again, Russia being bogged down in this at all is just embarrassing. No one in 2021 would've thought they'd suck this hard.

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[deleted] Apr 15, 2026 -8

[deleted]

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InformalYesterday760 Apr 15, 2026 +11

I'd argue part of being a "superpower" or really just having an effective military is knowing when and how to use it. Russia never should have started this war of choice, and they've ended up locking themselves into this quagmire and eroded their superpower status in the process. NATO was always gonna oppose Russian aggression in Europe, whether that aggression was to a nato member or not. Russia knew this. Russia somehow forgot about all their own corruption, poorly trained troops, poorly maintained vehicles, and lack of industrial base to replace strategic assets like their long range bombers, AWACs planes, etc. So Russia is "bad" at this

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[deleted] Apr 15, 2026 -9

[deleted]

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InformalYesterday760 Apr 15, 2026 +11

I hard disagree. Ukraine lost millions of lives the last time Moscow called the shots in the Holodomor, so Ukraine was always gonna take this one to the mat. The West has pumped hundreds of billions in aid intro Ukraine, so it seems disingenuous to act like the support hasn't been full throated. Western support is constantly being weighed against the risk of Putin being a goddamn lunatic and threatening nukes every year. Russian propagandists want to push this false narrative of the West giving tepid support or wanting to bleed Ukraine out/ not caring. And this just isn't the case. Again, hundreds of billions of dollars, Intel, weapons, vehicles, humanitarian aid, etc has flowed into Ukraine. Has it been *enough*? No. But that's because there is almost no limit to what Ukraine could need to deal with an invasion from a nuclear power. But every single life lost is due to Russia. Putin has all the blood on his hands. The sad fact is he's a monster who doesn't care. Hell, look at Hungary. A leader with decades in power and years of blocking support to Ukraine from the EU has finally been removed. The people in the EU and NATO are definitely supporting of Ukraine.

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[deleted] Apr 15, 2026 -4

[deleted]

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InformalYesterday760 Apr 15, 2026 +5

Right, but the deal to end the war will only be as "good" as it is to Ukraine at the end of the day because of the hundreds of billions in support they get. The "quick" deal you're proposing would have been way worse and involved more territory, resources, etc. Basically the West provides support so Ukraine can negotiate from a place of strength.

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M60_Patton Apr 15, 2026 +283

Its crazy to think how Ukraine has been able to innovation durring the war. They have half the military budget Russia has after allied contributions are taken into account, and yet they are seemingly able to get much more bang for their buck.

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EFIW1560 Apr 15, 2026 +154

Arrogance kills innovation.

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Ultra_Metal Apr 15, 2026 +134

So does tyranny. The smartest people in a country will tend to leave if there is a tyrannical government in charge. Smart people like living in freedom and have the means to leave. I've worked with so many brilliant Russian engineers who left Russia for the US.

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socialistrob Apr 16, 2026 +12

And it's not just about "smart people leaving." In authoritarian countries the dumb but loyal people often get promoted well beyond the "competent" people. A general who is dumb and loyal is not a threat to the dictator. A general who is competent and cares about the good of his troops and the nation could potentially be a threat. As bad as the Russian military has performed in Ukraine there has not been a successful coup against Putin this whole time. Even when Prigozin attempted one the actual Russian military refused to join in.

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ars-derivatia Apr 15, 2026 +7

>So does tyranny. The smartest people in a country will tend to leave if there is a tyrannical government in charge. You must come from a normal country, because you didn't even consider that people *can't* leave tyrannical countries. North Koreans can't leave NK. Soviet citizens couldn't travel outside the Soviet Union. Right now Russian men cannot leave too (bribes and illegal fleeing aside). People in countries of the Warsaw Pact could travel only to other "people's republics". >I've worked with so many brilliant Russian engineers who left Russia for the US. 99% of Russians in the 90s migrated to earn more and live higher-quality life, not because they cared about their government. Did anyone told you that was the reason for their migration or is it your own inference?

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Ultra_Metal Apr 15, 2026 +29

Nonsense. I met so many people who left Russia. Obviously they can leave since they're here in the US. Not all of them left legally. Every single Russian I met said they hated living in Russia because of the government. They hated both the USSR and the modern Russian regime. They told me so many horror stories about how awful life was there, mainly because of the government.

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littlebubulle Apr 15, 2026 +7

And those tyrannical governments aren't to keen on educating their popualtion, assuming they don't outright kill anyone perceived as an intellectual. Sure, the smartest people in the country can't leave. But those people wouldn't be the best at STEM either. And that's if their supervisors or the local authrorities actually make use of them and don't sabotage their own efforts. They might be as smart as the smartest people in other countries but their environment won't be the best for them to be productive.

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flif Apr 15, 2026 +6

They can leave it mentally. If you are smart, are you going to stick out your head with a new innovation that might harm the people in power? E.g. make the military tank division obsolete? Just look at how Kodak didn't get anything out of inventing the digital camera because it would harm their film business. It is much safer to just keep your head down.

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More_Shoulder5634 Apr 16, 2026 +1

Side note i had a roommate one time from upstate New York. Crazy dude pretty cool tho. Guess he would be about 60 now (he was about ~15 years okder than me). Anyway he worked at a kodak facilty doing something with film. Point is it had to be pitch black where he worked 12 hour shifts. Work by touch. Guess he had breaks and all that but he said it was nutty as hell. Freaking hallucinating and c***

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UniversalSoldi3r Apr 16, 2026 +2

The one I know doesn't seem to talk about his homeland much - just pulls a face. A few years ago his colleague, a lady who was looking for vacation destinations asked "what's a good time to visit Russia?" He said "In about ten years".

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Pomegranate2026 Apr 15, 2026 +4

There are millions of Russians spending their holiday all over the world, they can leave whenever they want. It's nothing like North Korea.

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ars-derivatia Apr 16, 2026 +2

They can't. Just because some golden youth with connections is spending their holidays in Thailand or Turkey doesn't mean that the Russians can travel freely. Men eligible for military service cannot leave, which is exactly what I said in my original comment. Check stuff out before being contrarian. >It's nothing like North Korea. It's very similar to North Korea actually with their mentality.

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Pomegranate2026 Apr 16, 2026 +1

Not just men who are eligible for military service, just those who have actually been summoned to to do so. That's about a few hundred thousand men. My bloody neighbour is an eligible Russian man, what are you on about.

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Uncommented-Code Apr 15, 2026 +2

Oh they don't make great use of those who are conscripted either. Just today I read about Russia sending tank operators to die on the frontlines in their meat assaults. Same with electrical engineers. I originally started as an electrical engineer myself before I switched fields and the idea of being sent to the front without supplies and left to die if I could instead be designing or building or providing QA and support for EW systems, drones, base stations, UGVs, missiles and other stuff is just... it kinda pisses me off, even though it's good that the Russians are so incompetent and I should be happy about it. It's so so braindead and just depressing to know that your skills could be put to really good use and instead they are just wasted in the most inefficient way possible.

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DomagojDoc Apr 15, 2026 +39

Putin invaded Ukraine to "stop" NATO from coming to Russia's borders. This resulted in NATO coming to Russia's borders by Sweden and Finland joining NATO and pretty defenseless, historically cooperative Ukraine going from having an amateur-ish army to a formidable force, hell bent against Russia that will pose a threat to them in every way, shape or form for the next 50+ years. Great success.

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tegat Apr 16, 2026 +2

Ukraine also has a very significant Russian speaking population (they were Ukrainians, they just spoke Russian, many were bilingual). There was significant legitimate political will to orient toward Russia. This is just gone. Many switched to Ukrainian only and won't teach their children Russian.

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Jabjab345 Apr 15, 2026 +6

A smaller budget forces them to innove in a way bigger budgets don't. You can see this with how the US still operates, we shoot down drones worth tens of thousands with missiles costing millions. But the US is so rich it can keep that up for a long time, Russia is also stuck in this mentality.

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boat_hamster Apr 15, 2026 +6

Necessity is the mother on invention. Lots of stuff was invented in WW2 too.

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Watch-Logic Apr 16, 2026 +2

what’s the alternative? they kinda have no choice

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Shtou Apr 15, 2026 +3

There are a culture of chipping in: people donating money for various causes, every day all these years. I think it counts as parts of military budget that is really hard to count but it helps the war effort tremendously. I took part in buying anything from clothes up to an actual spy satellite. We carry the coats together.

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Complete-Sort1617 Apr 15, 2026

Before the USSR fell apart, Russia was sending all of their top scientists and creators to develop technologies to Ukraine. Those same scientists never left and had a bunch of kids. Their grandkids are the ones coming up with this shit today. Russia is so f****** stupid.

0

16block18 Apr 15, 2026 -6

Realistically a lot of it comes down to western companies using Ukraine as a proving ground for their products and Ukraine having a blank cheque to buy things from western companies unlike Russia. This is especially true when it comes to higher tech items, and access to starlink. That and they have a very strong necessity for it and a lot of dedicated smart people with very little in the way of barriers to progress.

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smoothtrip Apr 16, 2026 +7

Blank check? They claw teeth and nail for funding. And the Americans rescind funds all the time. What nonsense

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[deleted] Apr 15, 2026

[deleted]

0

grchelp2018 Apr 16, 2026 +2

> Starlink both proved how invaluable having internet anywhere is any moron should have known this even before starlink.

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thediggestbick2 Apr 15, 2026 -5

Too bad the Russians will eventually win this war.

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TechnicalSurround Apr 15, 2026 +99

Begun the drone wars have

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Downtown-Oven9247 Apr 15, 2026 +34

Im starting an AI robot warfare company and am thinking of calling it Cyberdyne. Good idea or naw?

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Gin_soaked_boy Apr 15, 2026 +25

you're too late [https://www.cyberdyne.com/](https://www.cyberdyne.com/)

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mexican_sultan Apr 15, 2026 +56

Regardless your position this is a major event in history. Maybe to the hight of the first radar

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socialistrob Apr 16, 2026 +6

We've clearly been moving in this direction for awhile. Drones are becoming way more advanced and capable in this war. Ukraine is a country that is innovative and did have a decent tech sector before the war but they're also not the world leaders in technology either. A full scale war involving either the US or China with huge investments in drones would be absolutely terrifying.

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Vested1nterest Apr 15, 2026 +10

War… has changed… 🐍

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PaddleMonkey Apr 16, 2026 +2

I understood that reference. 🐍 edit: I also read that in his voice.

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bkyrdorchrd Apr 15, 2026 +19

Terminator prequel

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RamBamBooey Apr 15, 2026 +20

Good news for Ukraine. Very, very scary news for the world

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Ultra_Metal Apr 15, 2026 +44

Russia is toast. They're going to lose this war. While Ukraine makes more robot soldiers, Russia keeps sending its biological soldiers to die in meat waves and doesn't have any robot soldiers as far as I know.

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Vathar Apr 15, 2026 +72

They'just testing Ukrainian kill bots' kill limits and will send wave after wave of their own men until they reach their limit and shutdown. A common tactic really.

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Ultra_Metal Apr 15, 2026 +29

I didn't know Zapp was working for Putin. That would explain a lot.

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Euphoric-Garden-1210 Apr 16, 2026 +3

Oh so that's what the whole Z symbol is about!

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hoffsta Apr 15, 2026 +7

They will eventually get robot soldiers. It’s not like they haven’t noticed.

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KrydanX Apr 15, 2026 +16

As they eventually use the T14? As they eventually use their Stealth Fighters? Come on, repeating the same bullshit over and over doesn’t make it more true. If they had the capabilities, they would’ve used it at one point or another.

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Wulfger Apr 15, 2026 +6

You say that as if Russia isn't already going toe to toe with Ukraine in drone technology. Ukraine is ahead, for sure, but Russia isn't far behind, and both are constantly innovating. Russia isn't *as* adaptable as Ukraine, but they have shown that they *are* able to adapt to changing battlefield conditions, just with more difficulty. If ground drones prove to be a huge game changer I don't doubt we'll see Russia fielding them soon enough, and I say that as someone who sincerely hopes Russia will lose.

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hoffsta Apr 15, 2026 +3

Cool, keep telling yourself they will never have robotics, as though it’s some super secret tech that only the West has access to. We’ve seen both sides continue to innovate and expand capabilities. Not long ago it was the Russians who were launching devastating waves of fiber optic drones and the Ukrainians who didn’t have them yet. Not sure why people think a current advantage is a forever advantage.

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tegat Apr 16, 2026 +1

They will have robotics, but very few capable people stayed in Russia. Nobody capable will be left. Their schools are doomed, no funding. Soviets didn't have market, but had schools and captive citizens. Today's Russia doesn't have that. Yes, they will have robotics, but it will be s level worse that what Ukraine and other opponent will have. They might buy from China, but that is about it.

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chadthepickle Apr 15, 2026

Because Russia has entered of a state of reaction and not action. They are not able to innovations because they don't have the wiggle room for it, they can only copy the Iranian drone in mass production but they don't have the luxury of using resources for new things, because of corruption, because of lack of personnel and lack of material. They can mass produce what they already have or copy what they can scavenge from the battlefield, but they can't risk on waisting resources. Meanwhile Ukraine has expanded their drone production to countries in Europe that Russia cannot target.

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Ultra_Metal Apr 15, 2026 +1

It takes a long time to design them. They won't be able to catch up quickly enough.

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hoffsta Apr 15, 2026 +7

We’ll see. Why couldn’t they just buy the tech from China with all the new oil windfalls Trump is providing?

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Ultra_Metal Apr 15, 2026

China doesn't have robot soldiers either.

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hoffsta Apr 15, 2026 +10

Bro…you really think that?

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Ultra_Metal Apr 15, 2026 +2

I haven't seen any evidence of Chinese robot soldiers.

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hoffsta Apr 15, 2026 +14

That’s extremely naive. China has taken the lead the in robotics design and manufacture. To think they haven’t put any effort into robotic militarization is just burying your head in the sand.

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Ultra_Metal Apr 15, 2026 -10

No, the US is by far the leader in all areas of science and tech, including robotics, and especially in military tech.

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hoffsta Apr 15, 2026 +5

I think this is old news. China has made great strides in robotics and has all the manufacturing capacity the US lacks. Time will tell. Have a good one.

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MatioyrsIfo Apr 15, 2026 +2

You spend all day defending Israel helping Russia so it might be hard to see

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Ultra_Metal Apr 16, 2026 +1

What? I hate Putin and his regime. Your comment makes no sense. Israel is not defending Russia. Israel has been supporting Ukraine. Russia is Israel's worst enemy since they funded, armed and trained all the countries that attacked Israel. You obviously have no clue about anything.

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UnkarsThug Apr 16, 2026

Oh, and you wanted evidence: [https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/ubtech-secures-us37-million-deal](https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/ubtech-secures-us37-million-deal) China absolutely has the robotics capabilities to sell to Russia.

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r2k-in-the-vortex Apr 15, 2026 +1

Russia is building very similar robotic capabilities, it's drone warfare every which way. I think Ukraine is beating them in ramping up production capacity though. That's why meat waves, to soak up the drones that Ukraine have more of.

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BradyInk Apr 16, 2026 +4

Europe need Ukraine to win this war so bad. Imagine Russia getting victory and getting their hands on this tech and innovation - both countries at the forefront of modern warfare and Ukraine showing particular incredible adaptation, resilience and innovation. Europe needs Ukraine to come out of this and be on our side. Hopefully with Orban gone Europe can help the Ukrainians more and this war can come to an end that satisfies the people of Ukraine and we can help them rebuild. 🙏

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datumerrata Apr 15, 2026 +11

I wonder how they handle jammers. Do they go in areas they know don't have jammers? Maybe they have a couple drones fed by fiber that are the communication hubs for the remainder? Maybe they've found a way that's unaffected by jammers?

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Sea-Hat-8515 Apr 15, 2026 +35

I was under the impression a large number of drones are cable operated these days to circumvent the problem. You see footage of fields absolutely covered in the stuff

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JeletonSkelly Apr 15, 2026 +20

Have you seen the fields of fiber cable from drone usage? Almost certainly using fiber and short range wireless comms.

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datumerrata Apr 15, 2026 +3

That was my guess, but these things evolve. It's also trickier running fiber over ground, than by air

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Dollarsignuicideboy Apr 17, 2026 +1

I don’t see how that would be the case, only thing that is more of a risk is the coil getting clogged or messed up from gunfire

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Another_Slut_Dragon Apr 15, 2026 +13

Jamming is actually a lot harder than it sounds. While some aerial drones are trailing a fibre optic tether most ground drones are not. The answer is that radio gear got a lot harder to jam. We can thank cell phones for radio gear that is really good at rejecting interference and hopping frequencies. Starlink is a really common link here too. The radio cavities are tuned to look up in the sky. Unless your jamming equipment is also up in the sky it is like trying to blind someone with a flashlight while standing behind them. And that is also how a lot of radio gear gets around jamming. Phased antenna arrays are directional and can point a beam using just timing. The reverse works as well. It can filter out signals coming from other directions. It wouldn't surprise me if the drones are also using motorized directional antennas. It would be trivial to have a drone lock on to a signal coming from a certain direction.

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MisguidedWorm7 Apr 15, 2026 +1

Also, uavs have the dreaded weight limit, meaning that they can't easily carry larger jammer resistant coms. Ugvs on the other hand have the option of brute forcing their way through jamming, so it takes a lot more effort to jam them. Addition, ground vehicles that get jammed don't fall out of the sky when you jam them, so can sit there waiting for the jammer to go away and continue where they left off if you don't hard kill them.

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Another_Slut_Dragon Apr 16, 2026 +1

None fall out of the sky. They go on their pre-determined programmed backup plan when coms fail. Because drone communication is imperfect.

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MisguidedWorm7 Apr 16, 2026 -1

True for the most part. However, drones are generally more effective when under direct control, and some of the cheapest varieties are still prone to "navigation difficulties " when jammed. A ground vehicle also has the option to use autonomy, though navigation on the ground has its own problems

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Rocket-Appliances-26 Apr 16, 2026 +1

They're starting to include AI in the drones themselves, so that once communication is cut off by the electronic warfare, the drones can continue autonomously. Not sure how far along this is at this point, although I think it's there already at a basic level in specific cases. But it's also where the larger defense industry is moving.

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datumerrata Apr 16, 2026 +1

That's the way to do it. They've had the technology for drones to determine their location based on the terrain, topology, and optical recognition. It's big and expensive, though. It makes sense that a ground based drone would be more adapt. They have fewer weight restrictions and can borrow from autonomous car methods.

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Christopher_Ramirez_ Apr 16, 2026 +4

This is actually wonderful news from a humanitarian perspective. If we can reduce war to a contest between drones at a line of contact, we can greatly reduce the human suffering involved. It would still be costly, but not in lives at least.

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RealisticEntity Apr 16, 2026 +3

On the other hand, if war involved no human suffering at all, then there would be less of a disincentive to engage in warfare. Not that it really helps with all the wars (and civil wars / conflicts) going on at the moment, but you would think that humanity would learn its lesson at some point.

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Odge Apr 16, 2026 +1

That’s not going to happen. More likely it will be used by cultures that are sensitive to friendly casualties (the west), to do even more war, without risking bad approval numbers at home.

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whyuhavtobemad Apr 16, 2026 +1

Alternatively you can make human clones and arm them

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doubletaptoconfirm Apr 16, 2026 +1

But make sure it’s just one dude cloned a few million times on a planet in a different galaxy. Wait…

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gomibushi Apr 15, 2026 +2

+++ COMPLIANCE ACHIVED +++

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30yearCurse Apr 16, 2026 +2

EU and US better make sure that scrappy UKR wins, all that technology and military knowledge in russian hands... would be bad.

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popeblitzkrieg Apr 15, 2026 +3

Begun, the Droid Wars has.

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creeeeeeeeek- Apr 15, 2026 +3

Ukraine is a proving ground for once futuristic weapons and tactics

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doubletaptoconfirm Apr 16, 2026 +1

The old mantra of “you can’t plan for the next war with the tactics of the last war” in action

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FrogsJumpFromPussy Apr 15, 2026 +3

So the Russian position is using only ground robots and drones, or Ukraine found a Russian position using their own ground robots and drones? >Ukraine said it forced Russian soldiers to surrender and captured their position using only aerial drones and ground robots, no infantry, in a first for the war. It’s the later, and it is beautiful.

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Excellent-Island-660 Apr 15, 2026 +1

Send in Ed 209

1

VereksHarad Apr 16, 2026 +1

Great. Can I go home now then? I see that they clearly don't really need me anymore. And I have stuff to do at home.

1

SatanicBiscuit Apr 17, 2026 +1

every year they claim the same https://kyivindependent.com/ukrainian-assault-brigade-captures-russian-troops-using-only-drones-and-robots-in-historic-operation-military-says-06-2025/

1

Friendly_Soil6617 Apr 18, 2026 +1

troops vs position

1

Confident-Ad5479 Apr 15, 2026 +1

begun, the robot wars have

1

martechnician Apr 15, 2026 +1

Moscow or Bust!

1

Rush_Banana Apr 15, 2026

Unfortunately you still need humans to occupy the captured territory.

0

trekie88 Apr 15, 2026 +5

No you don't. Robots can patrol the newly captured territory.

5

UnkarsThug Apr 15, 2026 +2

You probably will want people. Just robots has flaws of it's own, and it's a lot harder to fortify without people and equipment. You want to be able to use the space on the map, not just take it up. It's hard to launch attacks from a taken location without actually having people there.

2

Any_Significance8838 Apr 15, 2026

I'm sure there's lots of video of this then

0

DohReignMeme Apr 15, 2026 -2

With Ukraine leading the world in modern warfare, this does not bode well for humanity. Cartels be like... Que?

-2

usuallysortadrunk Apr 16, 2026

This is how we get Skynet.

0

Ukraine said it captured a Russian position using only ground robots and drones, no infantry, for the first time

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