Unmanned ground vehicles: Ukraine's Tencore unveils its own UGV ecosystem with four platforms

With the “Tencore Ecosystem”, the Ukrainian company Tencore has announced an ecosystem for unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) that brings together four classes of ground robotic systems for military and civilian missions. It was first reported by the Ukrainian military blog Militarnyi, which had obtained a press release from the company.

According to Tencore, the Tencore Ecosystem is the first comprehensive ecosystem of its kind in Ukraine. It is intended to cover a broad range of tasks: logistics, casualty evacuation and fire support as well as crossing water obstacles and firefighting and rescue missions.

The developer's concept is to simplify the operation and maintenance of different platforms by integrating them into a single system, and to make it easier to incorporate additional equipment. As Militarnyi reports, Tencore emphasised that many different ground robotic systems in service create additional challenges – in logistics, personnel training, repairs and the interoperability of communication systems.

Tencore is quoted as saying: “Until now, military units have had to assemble a ‘technological menagerie’ of different types of unmanned robotic systems from dozens of different developers. This led to chaos due to the additional burden in terms of logistics, maintenance, personnel training and the incompatibility of communication systems.” And further: “The Tencore Ecosystem solves this problem with an ‘all-in-one’ solution.”

Four platforms in the ecosystem for unmanned ground vehicles

The foundation consists of four ground robotic platforms, each with its own purpose. First comes TerMIT, a modular tracked vehicle. Depending on its equipment, it performs logistics and engineering tasks, evacuates casualties or serves as a carrier for combat modules.

TerMIT is already in service with the Ukrainian army: only in July, Tencore handed over a further 29 units for logistics, evacuation and assault missions to the armed forces free of charge. In August, a combat module was tested that is equipped with RPV-16 rocket flamethrowers developed for the TerMIT 2.0 platform. A special module developed specifically for this vehicle is also intended to make it easier to recover damaged or immobilised UGVs.

Wheeled vehicles, amphibian and firefighting platform

The second component of the ecosystem is the TOR 4×4 wheeled vehicle. Fitted with armoured “run-flat” tyres, it is designed primarily for logistics and cargo transport in difficult conditions. Platform number three is the MAT1LDA 8×8 amphibious wheeled vehicle, developed by NODRICS, which can cope with any terrain. It is designed to overcome difficult terrain and water obstacles.

The fourth system, the TRAX UTILITY tracked vehicle, completes the line-up – a multi-purpose platform for firefighting and rescue, designed for civilian use as well as for special units. For this purpose, TRAX has a remote-controlled water cannon whose flow rate can be adjusted between 300 and 2,000 litres per minute. The remote control has a range of up to three kilometres. According to the company, the prototype has already been used in repelling Russian attacks in the Kyiv region.