00:00In this workshop near the front line in northeastern Ukraine,
00:05military mechanics are preparing robots for battle.
00:08These unmanned ground vehicles, or UGVs, are nicknamed hyenas.
00:13They will crawl toward Russian lines, carrying some 40 pounds of explosives,
00:19and attack an enemy dugout or halt in advance.
00:23This mechanic, who goes by the callsign Chimera,
00:26says he would never want a hyena coming near him in a dugout.
00:31Why not? Because I wouldn't want it to.
00:34Imagine what 40 pounds of explosives is like.
00:38It's very powerful. Very powerful.
00:41Workshops like this one, run by Ukraine's 3rd Army Corps,
00:44have sprouted up across the 745-mile front.
00:48There, experimental robots are being developed.
00:52It's an attempt by Kiev's outmanned military to find a technological edge
00:57against Russia's unrelenting infantry assaults in the fifth year of war.
01:04And ground drones are a critical new component of Ukraine's strategy to fight smarter.
01:10Brigadier General Andrei Beletsky commands the 3rd Army Corps.
01:15He describes the replacement of infantrymen with UGVs as
01:19the next revolution in warfare.
01:25The West slept through the unmanned aerial vehicle revolution in many ways.
01:31If the West really wants to not just keep up with the times,
01:34but to get slightly ahead, it needs to think about the next revolution.
01:40The 3rd Army Corps plans to replace around one-third of its front-line troops
01:45with UGVs by the end of the year.
01:47Inside a command center in the Kharkiv region,
01:51ground drone operators are bringing Beletsky's vision to life.
01:55Though Deputy Commander Barr notes the limits of UGVs.
02:00They struggle with physical obstacles and cannot clear a building or a trench like an infantry team can.
02:06They're also not produced widely enough to send in swarms the way aerial drones are.
02:12But they are removing humans from a wide range of dangerous tasks.
02:17They don't need food, they don't need water.
02:25They don't need logs delivered to build shelters, such as soldiers who have to hide from whatever wants to kill
02:32them.
02:34Basically, we don't need to feel for them.
02:36It's a hunk of iron sent to do the job we used to send soldiers to do.
02:48The former bartender adds that many of his friends would likely still be alive
02:53had these robots been around earlier in the war.
02:56In front-line areas, ground drones are now often trundling to and from besieged cities
03:03with rations or ammunition or spiriting away injured troops.
03:07The defense ministry said in June that UGVs have performed more than 50,000 logistics
03:13and evacuation missions so far this year.
03:16And according to Beletsky, who was promoted last month to oversee the defense of the Donetsk region,
03:22they are one more step toward the automation of warfare that will free up humans to make innovative decisions.
03:31War is a creative activity.
03:33It's an art, he says.
03:36Adding, quote,
03:37Otherwise, a commander is not called a commander, but a butcher.
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