An Estonian company will supply Ukraine with more than 150 THeMIS unmanned ground vehicles as part of aid financed and coordinated by the Netherlands. According to Milrem Robotics, a significant portion of these vehicles will be assembled and delivered in cooperation with the Dutch company VDL Defentec.
Milrem Robotics, in close cooperation with VDL Defentec, will organize the assembly of the equipment on a new production line designed for scalable production. The company will also train Ukrainian operators and personnel to use the robots effectively in combat conditions.
As noted, the new units will complement the 15 THeMIS vehicles already in operation in Ukraine, which have proven their effectiveness on the battlefield since 2022.
The company said that THeMIS is a proven and highly adaptable unmanned vehicle platform designed to support infantry, logistics, reconnaissance, and combat missions. It is currently part of robotics programs and is used in 19 countries.
It should be recalled that back in March, the Ukrainian military requested military equipment worth €100 million. Estonia will quickly purchase the items on this list from its domestic defense industry.
The Russian-Ukrainian war has shown a new level of technological warfare. This has taken the form of unmanned systems. Various controlled robots — surface, underwater, land, and air. At the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, they were already present in the troops. And in 3.5 years of full-scale invasion, their number has grown by several orders of magnitude. And this is not the end of the technological development of this war.
Although it should be noted that, to put it mildly, the countries fighting each other are not the strongest in terms of technology. Both the aggressor, Russia, and the victim, Ukraine, have declined in scientific and technical inventions since the dissolution of the USSR.
Both Russia and Ukraine are equally dependent on technological support from their partners. Ukraine is supplied by Western countries. Russia is supplied by the Axis of Evil countries: China, Iran, and North Korea. Although, if we are honest, we can find some Western electronics in Russian missiles and Chinese drones in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. But that is not important.
What is important is the fact that in wars between less developed countries, guided robots are used, and the percentage of their use is increasing. So what technological trump cards will high-tech countries such as China and the US pull out of their sleeves?
While war between these super systems has not yet broken out, the development of robotic technology continues. And there is a great place where it can be tested and brought to market.
But people are dying in the process…
