A couple of months ago Interfax news agency reported that according to Russian military officials they are going to adopt an unmanned ground vehicle called Nerekhta (name of a town in Russia). The Russian military has been testing a number of similar UGVs during the past couple of years. Besides Nerekhta, they were also testing UGVs called Soratnik (made by Kalashnikov Concern) and Uran-9 made by a company called “766 UPTK“.

Left – artillery reconnaissance version. Right – combat version.                                                              Images by Topwar.ru

Nerekhta is designed by Degtyaryov Plant (ZID) in cooperation with an organization called Russian Foundation for Advanced Research Projects in the Defense Industry. This UGV is designed to be a modular platform and will be adopted in three configurations: transportation, artillery reconnaissance and combat. The combat version will be possible to equip with one of the following weapon systems: PKT machine gun chambered in 7.62x54mmR, KORD heavy machine gun chambered in 12.7x108mm and AG-30М automatic grenade launcher. Reportedly, they also consider the possibility to arm Nerekhta with anti-tank missile launching systems. According to some sources, this UGV can also be adapted to be used in applications like firefighting, demining etc.

Note that Nerekhta can be equipped with two firearms at the same time. In this image, it is being tested in snow and is shown with a turret housing both the KORD machine gun and AG-30M grenade launcher.

Nerekhta UGV has successfully passed all the tests conducted in Alabino prooving grounds in summer of 2017. It proved to provide an accurate fire and was able to pass the ground obstacles showing a high level of mobility.

Thanks to Jin K. for the tip!