Italian Army tests Ukrainian gun-armed robots in assault drill

Ukrainian defense company DevDroid put two of its armed ground robots through their paces with the Italian Army during AEGIS 26, a major exercise watched by Italian President Sergio Mattarella, operating them alongside an Italian robot and infantry in a simulated assault and linking them to a NATO battlefield information system.

AEGIS 26 was held on Sept. 17 at the Monte Romano training area in Viterbo province, north of Rome. Mattarella attended with Defense Minister Guido Crosetto and Undersecretary of Defense Isabella Rauti, and was received by the Army’s chief of staff, Gen. Carmine Masiello.

About 850 soldiers took part, drawn from every unit of the Folgore Parachute Brigade along with the Acqui Division, special forces, army aviation, engineers, signals, air defense artillery and tactical intelligence units, with aircraft from the Italian Air Force. The Italian Army says the exercise tested its units’ ability to plan and run integrated tactical operations, including offensive maneuvers supported by remotely piloted systems, some of them built by soldiers themselves, for reconnaissance and attacks on defensive positions, along with artillery, anti-tank fire, cyber and electronic protection.

DevDroid brought its Droid TW 7.62 and Droid TW 12.7 unmanned ground vehicles, whose names refer to the caliber of the machine guns they carry. They operated alongside the ULISSE unmanned ground vehicle built by Italian company ABET HTS in a scenario that included artillery support, coordination between the robots and an infantry unit during an assault on enemy positions, evacuation of a casualty and a further advance.

The teams also connected the Ukrainian-made robots to a NATO situational awareness system, sending each vehicle’s position and live video into the network, and controlled them over a tactical military network. DevDroid says the robots worked with the Italian system and carried out joint tasks within a single scenario, and its specialists trained Italian soldiers on the controls and on how armed ground robots are used in combat.

The company said it shared lessons from the use of unmanned ground vehicles in Ukraine, where both sides now rely heavily on ground robots to carry supplies, evacuate wounded troops, lay mines and fire on enemy positions while keeping soldiers out of the line of fire.

“For us, it is important that Ukrainian robotic systems can operate alongside solutions developed by our European partners. Trials like these allow us to test platform interoperability in joint scenarios and move from technology demonstrations toward practical industrial cooperation. The next step is to deepen technological and manufacturing cooperation with our Italian partners,” DevDroid said in a statement.

The demonstration grew out of a partnership between DevDroid and ABET HTS. The two companies have signed a memorandum of cooperation and are preparing the documents for a joint venture, which they say would combine Ukraine’s battlefield experience with ground robots with the Italian company’s manufacturing and engineering capacity.