Lithuanian firm shows army tech that turns any car into robot

A Lithuanian defense firm that has been developing hybrid electric military vehicles since 2020 demonstrated its latest capability to the Lithuanian Armed Forces last week: a remote-control system that can turn virtually any vehicle into an unmanned ground platform, tested during the military experimentation exercise Vanguard 2026 at the Rūdninkai Training Area.

Ostara, the Vilnius-based company behind the Krampus hybrid diesel-electric all-terrain vehicle, presented both the vehicle’s drivetrain and its proprietary remote-control solution to Lithuanian soldiers during the exercise. The demonstration showed how the Krampus, a purpose-built military ATV with a hybrid propulsion system combining a 2.3-liter three-cylinder diesel generator with two 30-kilowatt permanent magnet synchronous electric motors, can be operated without a driver from a remote command position. More significantly, the company showcased how the underlying remote-control technology is not limited to the Krampus platform — it can be integrated into existing vehicles already in a military fleet, allowing operators to convert conventional crewed platforms into unmanned ground vehicles without purchasing new systems.

Darius Antanaitis, CEO of Ostara, described the operational logic directly. “This technology enables virtually any vehicle to be transformed into a UGV. As a result, end users can maximize the utilization of their existing vehicle fleet while avoiding additional investments in new platforms,” he said. The cost implication is straightforward: buying a new purpose-built UGV carries the full acquisition cost of a new platform. Retrofitting an existing vehicle with a remote-control module costs a fraction of that, and draws on maintenance pipelines, spare parts inventories, and operator familiarity that already exist within the force.

The Krampus itself has been in development since at least 2020, when Ostara first publicly described the vehicle as a high-speed off-road transport designed for special forces operations. The hybrid drivetrain was central to the design concept from the outset: running on electric power alone, the Krampus can approach an objective quietly while generating minimal thermal signature, then switch to diesel generation for extended range operations. The vehicle carries a 34 kilowatt-hour lithium iron phosphate battery pack providing an electric-only range of approximately 100 km (62 miles), with the diesel generator extending total operational range to approximately 400 km (249 miles). In November 2021, Ostara announced the completion of field tests and began work on the remote-control system. By February 2022, the company had formally redesignated the Krampus as an optionally manned platform, capable of operating either with a crew aboard or under remote control. That April, with the Krampus Mk1 heading toward a European arms exhibition debut, Ostara described it as ready for autonomous battlefield missions.

Ostara’s specific value proposition, the ability to retrofit existing vehicles rather than requiring new platform purchases, addresses one of the most persistent obstacles to UGV adoption: the disruption and cost of replacing vehicles already embedded in a force’s logistics and maintenance structure. A Lithuanian armored unit that already operates a particular vehicle type can, in principle, add remote-control capability to selected examples of that vehicle without changing its supply chain, training pipeline, or spare parts inventory.