Mobile Minefield

Matthew Dooley, defense strategic initiatives lead at autonomy company Forterra. “Until we come up with some other technical solution that's able to destroy the enemy by means of maneuver, firepower and shock effect in a protected fashion and retain terrain,” you will continue to see tanks on the battlefield, said Dooley, a former armored cavalry officer in the Army. Attacking tanks with armed aerial drones is one approach, but whether it’s their armor, an active protection system or other counter-UAS capabilities, there are a number of ways to make it “hard for a UAV to do what it needs to do, regardless of the size of the payload it's carrying,” he said. Currently, it takes between 10 to 22 first-person view drones to take out one tank, he added. The Army is currently developing a requirement for a family of consumable combat robots that have a range of 120 kilometers, can reach a top speed of 60 kilometers per hour and a large variant of which that can carry up to 50 kilograms of explosives. A swam of these mines behind Russian lines could shorten any Russian advance, almost of night. Bad for road travel as well.