Russia appears to be entering a new phase of accelerated military experimentation. While drones in UkraineMoscow is already testing unmanned armored vehicles capable of moving and operating remotely as if they were large combat robots.
The Russian technology magazine First Technical and , assures that the army is testing a completely remote-controlled tank that can move and rotate a turret without having to carry soldiers inside.
The system, according to a technician cited by the Russian media, is controlled “practically like a toy”. “It starts moving and the turret rotates. It’s really impressive,” said one of the employees in charge of the tests.
Although Russia has not officially revealed which exact model it is using for these tests, the development reflects the extent to which the Ukraine war is transforming the way tanks are used.
Drones are turning tanks into huge targets
For decades, battle tanks were the absolute symbol of modern land forces. But in Ukraine they are suffering one of the biggest military challenges since World War II.
Cheap drones, improvised explosives and controlled by operators miles away are destroying armored vehicles worth millions of dollars.
Russian military journalist Dmitri Steshin himself also recognized in First Technical recently that tanks have become “excellent targets” for drones, even when firing from hidden positions.
Images of small kamikaze drones have become common on both sides of the conflict.
The Russian solution: remove the crew
Faced with that problem, Russia appears to be exploring an increasingly logical solution from a military point of view: directly removing the human crew from the vehicle.
A remotely controlled tank would allow launching attacks or carrying out extremely dangerous operations without exposing soldiers inside the armored
The idea is not completely new. Russia already experimented years ago with robotic platforms such as the Career-9although those systems showed serious communication and reliability problems.
The difference now is that the real pressure of the battlefield forces technological development to accelerate.
Moscow continues to manufacture tanks at high speed
Paradoxically, while testing new technologies, Russia continues to massively increase production of traditional tanks.
According to the Ukrainian military portal Militarnyi, the state manufacturer Uralvagonzavod has just delivered another batch of modernized armored vehicles to the Russian army.
Among them there are models T-90M, T-72B3M y T-80BVMall derived from modernized Soviet designs. All three incorporate 125-millimeter cannons and additional protection against drones and anti-tank munitions. The most advanced is the T-90Mcurrently considered the most modern tank deployed by Moscow in Ukraine.
The problem is that they are still vulnerable
Despite the improvements, the big problem persists. Many of these armored vehicles continue to be destroyed by cheap Western drones, mines, and anti-tank guided artillery.
According to Western and Ukrainian intelligence estimates, Russia has lost thousands of tanks since the start of the invasion in 2022. The Militarnyi portal itself recalls that the first T-90M Russian destroyed in Ukraine appeared already during the first year of war.
Since then, these vehicles have continued to suffer constant losses despite their defensive improvements.
A war that accelerates military automation
The evolution of these remotely controlled tanks shows something much deeper: the war in Ukraine is brutally accelerating military automation.
Russia and Ukraine have become technological laboratories where systems that seemed experimental just a few years ago are tested.
kyiv already uses autonomous naval drones, FPV swarms and long-range drones capable of firing rockets under the wings.
Moscow, meanwhile, is trying to combine classic armor with electronic warfare, robotic systems and new anti-drone defenses.
The future of the tank is changing
The big question is whether tanks will continue to play the same central role in future wars. many experts They believe that they will not disappear, but they will change profoundly: more automated, more digitally connected and possibly without a human crew on numerous missions.
The war in Ukraine is showing that a small drone costing a few hundred euros can destroy a multimillion-dollar armored vehicle. And that forces all armies in the world to rethink how the armored weapon will survive on the battlefield of the future.
