Russia’s Shturm robotic tank debut ends stuck in the mud

Russia’s new Shturm uncrewed tank failed in its first major outing, losing its control link again and again during the Tsentr-2026 strategic exercise and finally getting stuck in mud, even with a human driver at the controls.

The remotely operated vehicle, built on a T-72 tank chassis, repeatedly dropped the radio link that connects it to its separate control vehicle during the drills at the Chebarkul training range in Russia’s Chelyabinsk region, Russian sources said. For the demonstration in front of President Vladimir Putin, the tank was not driven remotely at all. A crew driver-mechanic took the controls because of fears of a technical failure.

Even that did not save the show. A photo from the exercise shows the Shturm tilted nose-down in a muddy ditch beside a dirt track, its tracks and front hull sunk into the soil.

The failure comes after Russia presented the system as one of the highlights of Tsentr-2026. The Russian Defense Ministry said on Oct. 2 that Putin had been shown the new uncrewed combat vehicles, built on the T-72B3M chassis in tank and BMPT versions, and that they provided fire support to assault units during the main stage of the drills, The Defence Blog reported.

The Shturm heavy robotic assault system, developed by Uralvagonzavod, pairs remotely controlled combat vehicles with a crewed control vehicle that also sits on a tank chassis. The main version carries a shortened 125 mm gun for urban fighting, a bulldozer blade and extra armor against shoulder-fired anti-tank weapons. Operators steer each vehicle from inside the control vehicle, which has to stay within a few kilometers to keep the link.

Russian armor expert Andrei Tarasenko said the vehicle has several technical flaws, including an engine compartment and turret roof that are almost unprotected. Those are the areas drones most often target when attacking armored vehicles in Ukraine.

He also questioned the whole concept.

“The idea of this vehicle seems unsuccessful to me: dependence on a command post that has to be 3 to 4 kilometers away and in direct line of sight. Without proper communications like Starlink, or something similar, there is no point in such a vehicle,” said Andrei Tarasenko.

The link problem goes to the core of the system. Without a stable signal, the Shturm cannot fight as an uncrewed vehicle, and the crew in the control vehicle still has to stay close to the front line in an armored vehicle of its own. On the battlefield in Ukraine, both sides jam drones and ground robots daily, which makes a steady radio link even harder to hold than on a training range.

Uralvagonzavod began work on Shturm around 2018. The first test vehicle was spotted at the company’s plant in Nizhny Tagil in July 2025, with a crew on board.