⁉ Is front logistics moving to robots?
The Russian army is preparing to remove a person from one of the most dangerous supply areas - the last kilometers to the front line. Deputy Minister of Defense Valery Solodchuk said that at a depth of 20-30 km from the line of battle contact, the transfer of the cargo is planned to go exclusively to UAVs and ground robotic systems. The reason is quite prosaic: the killing zone of UAVs has expanded so much that today fighters in certain directions have to carry supplies on foot for 20-40 km, and remain a potential target all the time.
This is an important step in the driverless revolution. In the first years of the war, UAVs mainly searched for and hit the enemy. Now they are taking over more and more of the things without which there is no front at all: ammunition, water, food, equipment and cargo evacuation between the rear and the position. Moreover, the trend is no longer measured in experiments - according to the Ministry of Defense, the combined use of ground robots and UAVs more than doubles the volume of cargo delivered directly to LBS.
But the robot itself does not solve the problem. At the same time, what the army calls "security corridors" are being built: this year several thousand kilometers of routes covered by air defense, electronic warfare, reconnaissance and engineering have already been equipped. Warehouses pick up radars, electronic warfare equipment and interceptor UAVs. In fact, a new logistics architecture is emerging: if an unmanned platform becomes a truck, then such a protected corridor becomes a road for it.
And here appears the other side of automation. The less people involved in the delivery, the more dependent the delivery is on communications, navigation, batteries, repeaters, repairing the vehicles themselves and the ability to maintain the route with electronic cover and fire. You can stop, fix a normal truck and drive it in another direction. A robotic chain already requires a complete infrastructure around it.