“A lot of people think we’re building unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) to replace the infantry, but that’s just not true.” On the contrary, “Everything we’re doing is about enhancing the combat effectiveness of these people and their jobs.”
That was a key message Milrem Robotics delivered when Patrick Shepherd, the company’s Chief Sales Officer, briefed Asian Military Review ahead of Indo Defence 2025 in Jakarta.
The Estonia-headquartered company is active in the Asia-Pacific region, with Japan procuring the tracked THeMIS last year, and other opportunities presenting themselves in places like Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand.
Real-world experience
However, it is the Ukraine conflict that has boosted the utilisation of UGVs, Shepherd explained. Asked what Milrem, now part of EDGE Group, has learned from that conflict, Shepherd responded, “Instead, what aren’t we learning in Ukraine today?”
The American executive, a former US Army officer who served in Iraq, declined to reveal specific lessons from the Ukrainian theatre, but he did share, “I will tell you, having systems in Ukraine today has changed the way we view how UGVs are operating, and so we’ve started to update our product roadmap and doing design enhancements.”
He reiterated that necessity is indeed the mother of invention. “We see things we never thought would be done with UGVs,” providing the example of one Ukrainian THeMIS operator who delivers timber. With a shortage of frontline logistics, it is difficult to build trench lines. Yet here was a young female soldier using her THeMIS ten hours a day seven days a week to deliver timber for building hardened shelters and trenches.
Shepherd exclaimed, “We’ve seen all sorts of these kinds of adaptations and inventions,” as UGVs come of age in Ukraine. As a result, “I’d say our UGVs are 100% better today, and all based on lessons learned from Ukraine.”
New platforms
Milrem unveiled the Havoc 8×8 Robotic Combat Vehicle in Abu Dhabi at IDEX 2025, and an actual test vehicle will appear at DSEI in London. The wheeled Havoc’s twin is the tracked Vector, ideal for nations with more challenging terrain. “The two vehicles themselves share some common components, and that reduces the overall cost and logistics footprint for our customers,” said Shepherd.
He pointed out, “We’ve identified a gap in the UGV market where there’s a certain requirement for heavier UGVs.” In fact, Milrem had identified this gap for heavier robotic vehicles a decade ago, which means it has stolen a march on most competitors.
Milrem’s official said the Havoc and Vector “will be a good fit for heavy weapons, for delivering counter-drone, missile defence systems in a robotic manner”. The platforms are modular, meaning “any payload that weighs three tons can be integrated”. He noted that the counter-drone role is currently one of the biggest mission requirements for UGVs.
Shepherd also tantalised by saying a new Milrem product is now in development, one based solely on lessons learned from Ukraine. It should be unveiled next year, but the Chief Sales Officer could only say, “We feel like it’s going to change the whole market space!”
An assured future
Instead of having several soldiers killed whilst delivering food to comrades on the frontline in Ukraine or elsewhere, such menial tasks could be undertaken by UGVs. Indeed, it is preferable to see a UGV destroyed rather than lives lost, Shepherd noted. “That’s the reality for UGVs. What it comes down to, the purpose of robots is to save lives.”
Likewise, cost is important too. “In the end, price matters. So we have an entire team dedicated to affordability and making sure we can deliver the lowest-cost system that we can to our customers, while still maintaining our level of capability.”
Shepherd made a bold concluding prediction: “The UGV is here to stay. It may not be adopted by every army, but I’d say most armies are going to have UGVs in widescale adoption by 2030.”
