“In 2025, the Ukrainian battlefield welcomes a ‘New Steel Army’—the VATAG heavy unmanned combat vehicle family. Driven by AI, with a 2-ton load capacity and a low cost of $500,000, it changes traditional land warfare, marking the official entry of the Russo-Ukrainian military competition into an ‘algorithm-decided’ era.”
In September 2025, at Ukraine’s Brave1 Defense Technology Valley Summit, a heavy unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) named “VATAG” sparked widespread discussion among global military observers. This AI-powered, 2-ton-capacity “steel warrior” is placed high hopes by the Ukrainian military—against the backdrop of conscription difficulties, it is seen as a “key variable” in countering the 700,000-strong Russian ground forces.
From drones to unmanned boats, and now to heavy ground robots, the “unmanned” competition in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict is expanding from the air and sea to the land, quietly upgrade a military technology race centered on “hardware performance + algorithm efficiency + chip computing power” on the East European plains.
I. VATAG: From “Concept Vehicle” to “Battlefield All-Rounder”
According to technical details disclosed by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense at the 2025 summit, VATAG is not a single model but a “family-style multi-purpose platform.” Its base version already possesses four core functions: combat, logistics, transport, and engineering.
In frontline operations, it can be equipped with a 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun or a 25mm automatic cannon to perform anti-drone or light armored target strikes; in logistics transport, its 2-ton load capacity is sufficient to carry ammunition and supplies for an infantry squad for 72 hours; in engineering tasks, its mechanical arm can quickly clear mines or build temporary bridges.
More notably, its power design—a hybrid system—relies on electric propulsion in stealth mode on the frontline to avoid noise exposure from traditional fuel engines, while switching to fuel mode during rear operations to extend range. This “dynamic-stealth combination” design directly addresses the modern battlefield’s survival rule of “detection equals destruction”.
The Ukrainian military’s plans for VAT go far beyond this. The roadmap revealed at the summit shows three future variants: an anti-tank version equipped with “Javelin” or “Stugna-P” missiles for ambushing Russian armored columns; an anti-aircraft and anti-drone version integrated with a small phased array radar capable of detecting low-altitude targets within 3 kilometers; and a support version equipped with medical modules for battlefield rescue in dangerous areas.
This “modular + serialized” approach coincides with the development logic of the Russian military’s “Uran-9” unmanned combat vehicle, but the Ukrainian military emphasizes “low-cost rapid iteration”—the VATAG base platform uses commercial components and open-source algorithms, with a unit cost controlled within $500,000, only one-third of the Russian equivalent. This “cost-effectiveness advantage” may compensate for the Ukrainian military’s quantitative shortfall.
However, leading technical parameters do not equate to battlefield victory. VATAG’s combat effectiveness still faces three major tests: First, the reliability of artificial intelligence. Although it claims to have “automatic navigation and battlefield decision-making” capabilities, Russian electronic warfare units have repeatedly demonstrated the ability to paralyze unmanned systems through GPS interference and communication disruption. Second, the maintenance difficulty of the hybrid power system.
The frontline lacks professional maintenance personnel, and the battery life of the electric system and the reliability of the fuel system need to be tested in battlefield. Third, the upgrading of countermeasures. The Russian military is developing “laser blinding systems” and “microwave weapons” that can instantly destroy the electronic components of unmanned equipment.
VATAG’s anti-jamming capability will be a lifeline. Whether the Ukrainian military can solve these problems in the short term will determine whether its “steel new army” is a flash in the pan or a true game-changer.
II. The Russo-Ukrainian “Unmanned” Competition: From “Artillery Consumption War” to “Algorithm-Decided Outcome”
The debut of VATAG marks the entry of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict into the “Unmanned 3.0 Phase.” In the early stages of the war in 2022, both sides relied primarily on drones for reconnaissance and simple attacks; in 2023, unmanned boats began attacking Black Sea ports, becoming a symbol of “asymmetric warfare”; and in 2025, the addition of heavy ground robots means unmanned systems have officially penetrated the core field of land warfare—frontline firepower strikes and logistics supply.
Behind this transformation is both sides’ extreme avoidance of “human cost”: the Ukrainian military is forced to turn to unmanned solutions due to conscription difficulties, while the Russian military seeks to reduce soldier casualties through technological advantages to avoid domestic anti-war sentiment.
Russian research institutions are equally busy developing unmanned combat platforms. According to a February 2025 report by Russia’s “Military-Industrial Complex,” the Russian military’s “Nerekhta” unmanned combat vehicle has been upgraded to the third generation, equipped with a 30mm automatic cannon and “Kornet” anti-tank missiles, capable of autonomously planning routes and identifying enemy armored targets.
More notably, the “Marker” unmanned tank project—based on the T-72 chassis modification, equipped with lidar and millimeter-wave radar—can detect and attack targets from 5 kilometers away. Additionally, the Russian military is testing “wolf pack tactics”: grouping 10-20 unmanned combat vehicles via data links, unified by rear command centers to form a “distributed kill network.”
This “centralized command + decentralized action” model contrasts sharply with the Ukrainian VATAG’s “autonomous decision-making,” highlighting the differences in both sides’ concepts of unmanned warfare.
Deeper competition lies in “underlying technology.” The Ukrainian military’s VATAG relies on Western open-source algorithms and commercial chips, which are low-cost but susceptible to supply chain constraints—in 2024, due to NVIDIA’s export restrictions to Ukraine, its drones suffered from image recognition delays due to a lack of high-performance chips.
The Russian military, through a “self-developed + import substitution” strategy, has gradually achieved localization of key components. For example, the “Elbrus” series processors have been applied to unmanned combat vehicles, and although their performance is inferior to Western counterparts, their anti-electromagnetic interference capability is stronger. This difference in “technological autonomy” may become a decisive factor in the long-term conflict.
(This article synthesizes data from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense’s 2025 Brave1 Summit report, the Russian “Military-Industrial Complex” September 2025 issue, and Western military think tank analyses.)