UGV Max1 from Romania intercepts drones – Maximus Labs stays silent on where it is deployed

Intercepting and destroying military drones: that is what a robot from Romania has been built for, and it is already being used on one of the world's front lines. Who manufactures this unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) – and why is the company keeping quiet about where it is deployed?

The company behind the Max1 robot is Maximus Labs. The Romanian drone manufacturer, which began operations in 2024, has circulated video footage of its UGV on social media. According to the company, the tracked platform is already in use in an active war zone.

Managing director Alexandru Rădulescu announced the market launch in a LinkedIn post to which the video was attached. According to him, the vehicle has been used for years in several countries – for example in mining, tunnelling and firefighting. At the same time, he spoke of a combat-capable platform. “Max1 is the result of 14 years of research – a multifunctional, dual-use UGV built for high-risk missions,” Rădulescu wrote in his post.

He added that the platform “is destined to become the backbone of the army”. However, he did not say which armed forces he meant. Nor did he disclose any procurement contracts or the number of units deployed.

Earlier, the entrepreneur had told the Ukrainian publication Defence Blog that the platform had NATO approval. He said it was in use in the United States, France and Poland, while tests were currently under way in countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany and India.

A UGV made in Romania?

According to Rădulescu's most recent statements, up to 80 per cent of the components are manufactured in Romania: the vehicle, the remote weapon station and a radar system for low-altitude operations rely on a domestic supply chain. Earlier statements by Maximus Labs sounded different – at the time, the company said the vehicle was being built in the European Union and contained American processors and communications equipment. Local reports, in turn, suggested that French licences are involved in the project, in cooperation with the state-owned arms manufacturer Romarm. The platform also bears a striking resemblance to the TEC800 ground drone, which is built in France. The managing director further stated that a national service network is available for maintenance and technical support.

The Max1 is built on a modular chassis. According to the manufacturer, it carries payloads of up to 850 kilograms and runs on sodium-ion batteries for more than four hours, at a maximum of 16 kilometres per hour. It is intended for tasks ranging from combat missions and mine clearance to the evacuation of the wounded. According to Maximus Labs, Nvidia Jetson Orin computing modules are to enable the armed variants to track targets autonomously at distances of up to five kilometres. Firing the weapons, however, requires approval from a human.

The modular architecture opens up hundreds of applications, says Rădulescu. For civilian users, he lists agriculture, snow clearance, construction-site logistics and disaster response. In defence and security, he cites configurations for air and drone defence, explosive ordnance disposal, tactical transport and medical evacuation, among others.

This leaves open the question raised at the outset: why the company is keeping the deployment location secret. According to publicly available reports, military secrecy and operational security are likely to be the decisive reasons why neither the specific front line nor the army using the Max1 UGV robot is named.