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A heavy lift drone (top circle) transporting a ground robot (bottom circle) in a combat operation<\/p>\n
Russian MoD via X<\/p>\n
The next stage of warfare has arrived: aerial assault by robots transported by drones. Ukraine recently carried out the first known attack of this type<\/a>, opening up a range of new possibilities in which uncrewed systems team up to carry out previously impossible tasks. <\/p>\n Drones carrying other drones, known as marsupials, were only a concept before this war. The U.S. military has experimented with the idea many times over three decades, but never progressed beyond demonstrations. Now Ukraine is using the technique in action and the only limit may be the imagination of the operators. <\/p>\n A Menagerie Of Marsupials <\/p>\n The marsupial approach is usually adopted as a way of overcoming the mobility limitations of a small drone. In Ukraine this applies especially to FPVs, and as a result we have seen several types of drone mothership<\/a> \u2013 big drones carrying smaller drones a long distance and releasing them close to the target area. In addition there are ground robots transporting and launching<\/a> FPVs, and robot boats acting as uncrewed aircraft carriers<\/a> launching FPVs both for strikes and to intercept large drones. <\/p>\n The reverse marsupial concept: a UGV outfitted as a transporter\/launcher for FPV drones<\/p>\n Russian MoD via X<\/p>\n Another example appeared recently when a robot boat transported a tracked Uncrewed Ground Vehicle or UGV in the first ever uncrewed amphibious assault<\/a> on Kinburn Spit. The robot, armed with a remotely-operated machine gun turret, rolled up the beach and moved inland. This was most likely a reconnaissance mission to flush out any remaining Russian troops in the area. Similar UGVs are used in both defensive and offensive operations, usually working with infantry but sometimes in completely uncrewed missions. <\/p>\n A heavy-lift multicopter transporting a ground drone was therefore not much of a surprise. The UGV appears to be an ARK-1<\/a>, a small vehicle with all-terrain wheels claimed to be capable of 25 mph, capable of traveling 9 miles with a 33-pound payload. With a Starlink satellite receiver, it can be controlled at any distance \u2013 \u201cwe can drive it around here from Kyiv\u201d, a company representative told Janes.<\/a> <\/p>\n ARK-1 UGV carrying a TM-62 mine for a one-way attack, as seen in the recent heliborne mission <\/p>\n Brave1<\/p>\n ARK-1s transport supplies, gather intelligence and carry weapons. Some have been fitted with machine guns; this example carried a TM-62 anti-tank mine. In previous attacks UGVs with mines have demolished Russian-occupied buildings and fortifications. <\/p>\n The heavy-lift drone could simply have dropped the mine itself. But this technique means the drone stays well outside the range of defensive fire and jamming. The UGV can travel several miles, though a route would need to be thoroughly surveyed to ensure that the vehicle could traverse it without getting stuck. <\/p>\n The UGV could also be used for ambush. Once delivered, UGVs can wait until Russian forces are spotted nearby and maneuver into position to attack. FPVs often lurk in ambush in the same way, but the UGV carries far more powerful warhead and the quiet UGV moving at ground level is less likely to be spotted and harder to stop with a shotgun. <\/p>\n How The U.S. Lost A 20 Year Lead In Robotics<\/p>\n Perhaps the only surprise is that it took so long. Heavy lift transport drones and UGVs are both well proven technologies, and combining them is not rocket science. What may be most frustrating to U.S. observers is that the Pentagon has developed this same technology many times and abandoned it. <\/p>\n In Project STORK, a drone dopped an EEL UGV by parachute for a reconnaissance mission<\/p>\n U.S. DoD<\/p>\n Back in 2003, the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Battlelab, and co-sponsored by the AFRL, carried out Project STORK<\/a> in which small UGVs were parachutes down from a drone flying at 400 feet top carry out an urban reconnaissance mission. This was the first known deployment of UGVs by drone. <\/p>\n In 2009, the Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiment included a demonstration of a Fire Scout uncrewed helicopter landing a Dragon Runner UGV<\/a>, a tracked 13-pound reconnaissance vehicle. <\/p>\n Again, in 2014, the Army Robotics Technology Consortium sponsored a test called \u201cExtend the Reach of the Warfighter through Robotics<\/a>\u201d in which a large K-MAX uncrewed helicopter successfully delivered a Squad Mission Support System (SMSS) vehicle. The SMSS<\/a> is a supply carrier weighing almost two tons. This time the goal was to show how a robotic resupply mission would work, with the SMSS traversing the dangerous \u201clast mile\u201d covered by enemy fire which might have been too hazardous for an air vehicle. <\/p>\n A K-MAX uncrewed helicipter transports a UGV in a 2014 U.S. Army demonstration<\/p>\n U.S. Army<\/p>\n Little seems to have come from these or many other projects. As one disappointed researcher put in after demonstrating a project to remotely deliver robots<\/a> able to crawl through rubble: \u201cIt worked fine but it wasn\u2019t particularly interesting to anyone.\u201d <\/p>\n The U.S. military has the plenty of money and plenty of high-tech gear waiting on the shelf, both resources in short supply in Ukraine. But without the interest and the motivation to develop, produce and deploy robotics systems, the U.S, has spent decades going nowhere. And\u2014as with so many other drone developments \u2013 Ukraine has put together a working system on a shoestring budget and used it in action. <\/p>\n The Future Of Robotic Heliborne Assault <\/p>\n There are serious questions over whether traditional style heliborne assault can still work on the modern battlefield. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 opened with a mass helicopter assault on Hostomel airport<\/a> outside Kyiv. Six helicopters were lost in the operation, and a counterattack dislodged the Russians were dislodged before they could bring reinforcements in on transport aircraft.<\/p>\n While some argue that heliborne assault is now too risky, a January 2026 report entitled Air Manoeuvre Forces in European Large-Scale Combat Operations<\/a>, from UK defense thinktank RUSI argues that air assault is still feasible with proper planning and support to ensure defenses are suppressed. <\/p>\n Heliborne assaults like the Hostomel mission are high-risk, high-gain gambles. But when the troops being dropped and the helicopters carrying them are robots, the risk disappears. As Ukraine has shown, drones and UGVs can be produced at low enough cost to be used in one-way attacks. <\/p>\n A Chinese drone delivers a quadruped robot armed with a machine gun in an exercise<\/p>\n Kestrel Blood WIng<\/p>\n