Russia Rehearses The Robot War
Russia put 567 drones and more than 50 robotic systems into the finale of Center-2026, alongside 6,000 troops. Plus: robots by parachute, a robot tank in the mud, logistics under drone fire, China takes notes and Putin’s jet Gerans.
Drones By The Hundred
Russia’s Center-2026 strategic exercise ended on 3 October with a final assault at the Chebarkulsky training ground in the Urals. About 6,000 troops took part in that phase, 4,600 of them Russian. They were supported by 55 aircraft and helicopters, 567 uncrewed aerial vehicles and more than 50 robotic systems, according to the Russian government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta. That is roughly one drone for every ten soldiers. Across 11 training areas and the Caspian Sea, more than 47,000 personnel took part.
Breaching By Drone
The script read like an after-action report from Ukraine, and the newspaper ties almost every episode to a named battle there. Quadcopters flew demolition charges to the first line of trenches to blast passages through. FPV (first-person view) drones laid smoke screens and dropped anti-tank mines on vehicles as they changed position. FPV interceptors fought the simulated enemy’s drones at low and medium altitude. Kurier ground robots burned out anti-tank mines with onboard lasers, and Chelnok robots laid light bridges across trenches. An Orlan-30 drone laser-designated Krasnopol-M2 shells onto an enemy drone control post.
Robots By Parachute
Then came a first. Airborne troops dropped Kurier unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) from an Il-76 transport at about 600 metres on P-7 parachute platforms, UNITED24 Media reports, citing Militarnyi and the Russian Defence Ministry. Operators already on the ground took control after landing. The robots’ tasks behind simulated enemy lines were fire support, resupply, casualty evacuation and damaging roads. The basic Kurier weighs up to 250 kilograms, reaches 35 km/h and has a control range of 3-10 kilometres and up to 72 hours of endurance. It can carry machine guns or automatic grenade launchers.
A T-72 With No Crew
The heaviest robot at Chebarkul did not go to plan. Shturm is a remote-controlled assault vehicle built by Uralvagonzavod on a T-72B3M chassis, with a shortened 125mm gun and a bulldozer blade for urban fighting. Three operators, acting as commander, gunner and driver, steer it from a separate crewed control vehicle, Military Watch Magazine reports. On 2 October the Defence Ministry said Putin had been shown uncrewed combat vehicles providing fire support. The reality was messier. In front of the president, Shturm repeatedly lost its radio link to the command vehicle, so organisers abandoned remote control and put a human driver in, Tom’s Hardware reports, citing Defense Blog. It still ended up stuck in a muddy ditch, its tracks and front hull buried. A Russian armour expert quoted in the report pointed to the system’s dependence on a command post 3 to 4 kilometres away and in direct line of sight.
Logistics Under Drone Fire
The least visible part of the exercise may matter most. In Echelon-2026, a logistics exercise linked to Center-2026, support units dispersed, refuelled in the field and repaired vehicles on the assumption that enemy drones were always overhead, according to a full analysis by Intelligence World. Rear areas were dug in and camouflaged instead of being concentrated in large depots. Damaged vehicles came back with extra anti-drone protection. Bogomol-7 ground robots handled resupply and evacuation, and units set up 3D printing for spare parts and dedicated repair points for robots. The report calls it a shift “from logistics as a rear-area function to logistics as a contested tactical activity.”
Black Sea Lessons Travel
The Caspian Flotilla rehearsed defending its base at Kaspiysk against an attack by uncrewed surface vessels, while the missile ship Tatarstan and a Bal coastal-defence unit struck maritime targets. Intelligence World reads this as Russia treating counter-USV defence as a requirement for the whole navy, not just a problem for the Black Sea.
China Takes Notes
China, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan and Tajikistan sent contingents, while Kazakhstan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo sent operational groups. China fielded personnel from its Central Theater Command and 82nd Group Army. “The exercise involved a large number of unmanned systems, presented considerable challenges in operational coordination and featured a high degree of realism,” Chinese officer Zhang Jiayi said in a report carried by Bastille Post. Russian officials said openly that passing on lessons from the war was part of the aim. Intelligence World is cautious about what that achieves: “Participation demonstrates exposure to the model, not successful adoption.”
Jet Gerans On Show
President Vladimir Putin watched the finale on 2 October and inspected the new jet-powered Geran drones that Russia uses against Ukraine, AP reports. He said delegations from 55 countries attended as observers. According to Interfax, the scenario began with Russian forces repelling an attack in the South Ural direction. It then switched to an offensive to establish a “security zone” inside a neighbouring state.
Partly Learned
Intelligence World’s verdict is “partial institutionalization.” Lessons from Ukraine ran through assault, reconnaissance, air defence, engineering, logistics and multinational training, instead of sitting apart in a technology display. But the exercise “did not establish force-wide availability, production depth, resilience under hostile electronic attack, sustained logistics under continuous UAV surveillance, or the quality of decentralized decision-making under heavy attrition.” The real test comes next: whether Center-2026 procedures appear in routine training, unit establishments, procurement and manuals beyond showcase units. Either way, the shift is in concept more than technology. Russia is now training for a battlefield where drones are always watching.
Featured Image – Uncrewed T-72-based tank belonging to the Shturm Heavy Assault Robotic System, during the Center-2026 exercise, October 2026
