Ukraine to Contract 25,000 Combat Robots by Mid-2026, Doubling Prior Year's Deployments

Ukraine's defense minister revealed plans this week to contract 25,000 new robots in the first half of 2026, which is double last year's total, with a goal to eventually have 100% of front-line logistics carried out by robots. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that robots carried out more than 22,000 frontline missions in three months.

DevDroid, a Ukrainian robotics company that works closely with Ukrainian soldiers to repair and upgrade war robots, builds a range of combat robots along with components that let units mount weapons like grenade launchers and machine guns, Insider reported.

Oleg Fedoryshyn, director of R&D at DevDroid, said the company designs its products so that they can be updated as easily as possible, like mobile phones or operating systems. 'We can update it remotely, and we add some new features, we fix some bugs,' Fedoryshyn said. DevDroid updates the software used by its robots every few weeks and can make remote fixes within minutes, Fedoryshyn said.

The company can design a new update, test it with a brigade, and roll it out across all deployed systems within a week. DevDroid typically does a major modification to its robots about every six months, delivering new capabilities such as more than doubling the distance the robot can travel, Fedoryshyn said.

DevDroid deploys teams near the front line to fix damaged systems or make rapid hardware upgrades, allowing for same-day turnaround, Fedoryshyn said.

These teams can also help evacuate disabled robots from the battlefield. DevDroid can make remote fixes to its robots in minutes and has staff always near the front, Fedoryshyn said. DevDroid has 24/7 support chats with every unit using its systems, allowing a unit to ask for help and get a response, Fedoryshyn said.

The idea to arm DevDroid robots with anti-tank RPGs, now a feature being rolled out, first came from soldier feedback.