Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
According to Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Directorate, footage of the test will soon be released.
Warfare is shifting fast. Across modern battlefields, remote machines are steadily taking over the dirtiest and most terrifying assignments.
Soldiers have spent years dodging artillery in muddy trenches, but unmanned vehicles are gradually stepping into harm’s way instead.
The war in Ukraine has become a live testing ground for new weapons, defences, and tactics, and drone warfare in particular has evolved with lightning speed during the war.
But the development is not stagnating—in fact, Ukraine says it has just added a new weapon to its Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs):
Flamethrowers.
Fire on wheels
Ukrainian outlet United24 Media reported on Nov. 5 that the country’s Defense Intelligence Directorate, known as HUR, announced that special forces tested an unmanned ground vehicle armed with a flamethrower.
The trial marks a bold shift in how robotic vehicles are used on the front lines.
Operating under HUR’s Timur Special Unit, the fighters put the new system through its tactical paces. Details remain scarce. Ukrainian defense officials refused to disclose the vehicle’s operational range, fuel type, or intended battlefield role, keeping the technical specifications strictly classified.
Independent reporter Farid Sharafmal also joined the trials for his YouTube channel Farid Speaks. According to HUR, video from the testing ground will soon appear in an episode highlighting an intelligence operative who uses the call sign “Photographer”.
Beyond the trenches
The flamethrower test is part of a much broader push across the front line. Across active sectors, Ukrainian units already deploy remote rovers to storm enemy defensive shelters and fire mounted grenade launchers, allowing infantry to clear hazardous bunkers without walking into deadly kill zones.
Heavier weapons are also common. In an earlier engagement, soldiers from Ukraine’s 44th Separate Mechanized Brigade guided a DevDroid Droid TW-12.7 combat rover straight toward a building packed with Russian troops.
According to DevDroid, the drone took out 20 Russian soldiers without putting any Ukrainian soldier in harm’s way.
The company is already proving its concept abroad. During recent drills, DevDroid demonstrated both its lighter Droid TW 7.62 and heavier TW 12.7 models alongside Italian troops. The live-fire demonstration showed how quickly combat robotics is evolving.
