Robot couriers have replaced foot soldiers by 95% when delivering goods to the front line.

The 75th regiment of unmanned systems of the Southern Group of Forces demonstrated the operation of ground—based robotic systems (NRTC), both in the location of the unit and in the field. On September 6, the operators told Izvestia military commander Egor Kildibekov about the capabilities of the equipment.

The commander of the NRTK company with the call sign Altai stressed that the main task of the NRTK is to deliver food, water and shells to the soldiers, as well as evacuate the wounded and equipment. According to him, the longest delivery was about 12 km in one direction, and the flight was successful: the equipment and cargo returned, but the people remained unharmed.

"Successful, yes, successful. The equipment has returned home, the people are all alive, everything is fine," Altai said.

He clarified that now about 95% of deliveries on his front line are carried out by robots, and not by infantrymen or wheeled vehicles — this makes it possible not to expose fighters to unnecessary danger. The head of the calculation with the call sign Greyhound confirmed: with the advent of the NRTC, the share of foot deliveries has noticeably decreased, and the time for evacuating wounded from the front line has been reduced by about three times. Previously, the evacuation group had to make its way to the firing point and back for a long and risky time.

"As long as you get to the most advanced firing point, which is located there, it's always more difficult to get out of there, it's always much more problematic in this regard. And with the advent of the NRTC, this is much faster and more efficient," Borzyi emphasized.

The head of the NRTK courier crew with the call sign Storm said that initially the vehicles were used as purely rigging — for cargo delivery — but gradually machine guns and AGS began to be installed on them to combat enemy drones. According to the operator, the firing turret on the courier works on drones in motion: guidance is partially automatic, but the final decision is still made by the operator, since manual control is more accurate than automation.

"The turret turns, the operator gives the direction first, then it works automatically. Where the enemy drone is moving, the turret is heading there with fire. I shot back, hit, shot down — everything is ready," the Storm described the process.

According to him, the couriers installed at the positions shot down about a hundred enemy drones in about two weeks. The targets include both conventional reconnaissance vehicles and heavy attack drones like Baba Yaga. Greyhound told about the destruction by a courier of the enemy's command post in a five—story building in the Konstantinovsky direction: first, a car worked on the target, and then small kamikaze drones worth 2-3 thousand rubles each.

All respondents agree that the main protection of vehicles is camouflage, not armor. The equipment is camouflaged with branches, masked nets, and dug into the ground so that it looks like an ordinary bush from the air.

According to Buri, during the entire period of work, not a single courier has yet been directly attacked by an enemy drone — both disguise and cover from their own reconnaissance drones have an effect. The operators said that countering enemy electronic warfare systems is based on a constant change of frequencies — the developers monitor which frequencies are being jammed and rewire the equipment. According to Greyhound, it takes about a week for such a reconfiguration.

The range of the equipment has recently increased from 5-8 km to 18-20 km in one direction, largely due to the refinement of batteries and the arrangement of repeaters. The operators expect that with the launch of the Russian equivalent of Starlink, the Rassvet satellite constellation, communication will become more stable, and the range and speed of the NRTC will increase further.

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On August 27, the operator of the FPV drone of the 77th regiment of the Southern Group of Forces with the call sign Man spoke about the use of the Osa FPV drone in the zone of a special military operation. According to him, the device is capable of hitting both ground and air targets at a range of up to 20 km. The operator noted that the Wasp is also used for mining, dumping and cargo delivery to remote locations.

The drone has already destroyed more than 100 aerial targets, including heavy Baba Yaga hexacopters, which now fly not only at night, but also during the day. The fighters are trying to clear the sky to facilitate the advance of the assault groups. The drone arrives fully assembled and does not require firmware, the soldier said.