Russia tests robot to destroy target nearly 10km away

After becoming famous with the Platform-M robot in Syria, Russia continues to test a heavy robot weighing nearly 15 tons.

Heavy duty robot

According to Sputnik, the Russian Ministry of Defense and manufacturer have just successfully tested Vikhr - a combat military robot that can automatically aim and attack dangerous targets.

Currently, much information about this robot is still kept confidential by Russia, however, according to some sources, Vikhr is considered the world's leading heavy combat robot today (both in terms of weight and weapons).

According to this source, Vikhr weighs about 14.7 tons, it can perform a series of missions such as reconnaissance and attack targets on the ground and in the air, protect strategic facilities and minimize casualties on the battlefield.

Vikhr has an operating radius of 600km, can move at a speed of 60km/h on land and 10km/h underwater. In terms of weapons, Vikhr is equipped with a 30mm automatic cannon with 500 rounds, a 7.62mm machine gun with 2,000 rounds.

And in particular, the robot is equipped with up to 6 Kornet-M missiles - a weapon that can destroy enemy tanks from a distance of up to nearly 10km and even helicopters and low-flying fighter jets.

The special feature of this new type of combat robot compared to previous types produced by Russia is that Vikhr can automatically detect targets and be ready to attack them. Depending on the target, the Vikhr robot selects the appropriate weapon to fire.

Vikhr robot fires during testing.

Fame in Syria

Before the successful test with Vikhr, Russia had produced and put into service many different types of combat robots, including Platform-M. However, no robot had the weight and weapons it carried as big as Vikhr.

It is known that at the end of 2015, the Platform-M robot terrified IS militants in Syria's Latakia province. After only 20 minutes of Platform-M's attack, IS fighters fled in chaos, leaving behind their weapons and equipment.

On the 754.5 peak in the Latakia mountains, Syrian soldiers counted 70 gunmen killed, the Syrian army had no losses, 4 people were slightly injured.

The Platform-M robot was developed by the Izhevsk Advanced Science and Technology Research Institute and was first publicly unveiled in Kaliningrad on the occasion of the military parade during the 69th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War of Russia (2014).

With the appearance of Platform-M, many effective activities can be brought about such as intelligence gathering, patrolling, detecting and destroying mobile or fixed targets, contributing to the protection of important bases.

According to information announced by Russia, Platform-M has a compact size (1.6 m long, 1.2 m wide and 1.2 m high), weighs from 800 kg to 1 ton, can carry a weight of more than 300 kg, travel a distance of 1.5 km at a speed of 12 km/h, and operate continuously for 10 hours.

The Platform-M robot is equipped with combat weapons including 7.62mm machine guns and grenade launchers, and can destroy targets through automatic and semi-automatic control systems with the support of optical-electronic systems and radio reconnaissance positioning.

In particular, the main weapons of the Platform-M robot are 4 Kornet-M anti-tank missiles, an electro-optical observation system, cameras...

Threat to America

After Russia successfully used combat robots for the first time in Syria and continued to test new robots, experts said that the presence of Russian robots on the battlefield will change the situation of war, creating fierce competition with the US, a country known as the land of military robots.

In contrast to the use of robots for combat support missions (reconnaissance photography, ensuring military logistics, mine clearance...) as the US has done, for the first time a complete robotic complex system of the Russian army has directly participated in combat.

Recently, in a forum discussing national security issues in Washington, US Army General Robert Work commented that Russia is investing heavily in building its own combat robot army with superior features, which will create a lot of pressure for the Pentagon if it wants to pursue this direction.

"The Russian army's General Staff - General Valery Vasilevich Gerasimov has stated that their military forces are ready for wars using robots. And in the future, many units will switch to using completely combat robots instead of humans as before," said Mr. Robert Work.

Obviously, with its methodical and serious investment, Moscow is demonstrating to the US and the West its comprehensive defense power and potential. Russia's current and planned future military robotic systems are making the US feel worried.

According to Baodatviet