More than 100 autonomous ground vehicles from Forterra have been operating in conflict zones in Ukraine for the past nine months, according to the company. Forterra believes the deployment is the largest combat use of autonomous ground vehicles by any US defense tech company.
The vehicles are not a distant concept or a controlled demonstration. They have been moving cargo, supporting defense logistics, and helping evacuate wounded soldiers in a battlefield where aerial surveillance and drone attacks have made ordinary movement far more dangerous.
Why ground autonomy is getting attention
Aerial drones have shaped much of the fighting in Ukraine, but their impact has also created demand for a different kind of machine. When surveillance from above can quickly lead to attacks, soldiers and planners need ways to move supplies, munitions, and casualties without exposing people unnecessarily.
The mission is funded by US defense dollars and fits into a broader effort to support Ukrainian resistance to Russian invaders while learning how new military technology performs under pressure. Forterra chief growth officer Scott Sanders, a former US Marine officer, told TechCrunch that defense technology cannot truly be understood until it meets combat conditions.
Sergeant Major Corey Wilkens, who leads a US Army program focused on autonomous vehicles and tactics, described the risk plainly: soldiers can become vulnerable to first-person view drones, other drones dropping munitions, artillery, mortar, and other threats.
That is the core reason UGVs are being tested so seriously. The promise is not only automation for its own sake. It is the possibility of moving essential weight through dangerous areas while reducing the number of people who must make that trip.
What Forterra brought to Ukraine
Ukraine already builds its own uncrewed ground vehicles. According to a Ukrainian army soldier who has worked with the vehicles and was not identified by TechCrunch for security reasons, those systems are typically battery-powered and can carry up to 250 kilograms.
Forterra’s Lancer vehicles are different in several important ways. They are based on Polaris ATVs, use a custom-built sensor and compute stack, run on gas, and can carry 750 kilograms of cargo. That larger payload makes them useful for logistics and defense support where weight matters.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces did not immediately embrace the vehicles without reservation. The source article says Ukrainian forces have had mixed experiences with Western contractors bringing new technology to the battlefield, and Forterra’s early offering initially felt too focused on the higher-end requirements of the US Army.
One major adaptation changed the value of the system: adding a Starlink satellite internet antenna. With that modification, the vehicles became more useful in the conditions Ukrainian units were actually facing.
What the missions have shown
Since arriving in Ukraine last October, the Forterra vehicles have driven more than 2,500 miles across more than 1,100 missions. They have carried 777,440 pounds of total weight and completed 52 casualty evacuations.
Those numbers show that the Lancers are not merely being evaluated in theory. They are being used repeatedly in real operating conditions, across missions where cargo capacity, reliability, and remote operation all matter.
The same experience has also exposed the weak points. Some vehicles have been lost in combat, especially when they become stuck in deep mud or other terrain. In those situations, Russian forces can target them while they are unable to move.
Forterra has drawn lessons from the deployment in several areas:
- How electronic warfare affects autonomous and remotely operated systems.
- How to update software from afar while vehicles are already deployed.
- How the vehicles handle difficult terrain and battlefield conditions.
- How to reduce breakdowns when equipment is under constant operational pressure.
Those lessons matter beyond Ukraine. Forterra has raised more than $500 million in venture funding from funds including XYZ Venture Cpaital and Moore Strategic Partners, and the combat experience could strengthen its position as it competes for national security contracts.
The autonomy gap is still real
Despite the term self-driving, Ukrainian soldiers have mainly been teleoperating the vehicles in combat zones. The reason is practical: the vehicles are too valuable to lose casually, and autonomous systems are not yet ready for every reality of war.
The vehicles can navigate autonomously across diverse terrain, but that is not enough in a live combat environment. The Ukrainian soldier told TechCrunch that the autonomy does not yet know how to respond to enemy threats in real time while the vehicle is in front of the enemy.
This is one of the central lessons from the deployment. Autonomy in a field, on a route, or across varied ground is different from autonomy under enemy pressure. A military vehicle may need to interpret unexpected threats, avoid danger, continue its mission, and protect itself or its cargo under conditions that are not predictable.
Forterra is working on how to combine algorithms associated with self-driving cars with newer generative AI software that can help machines react to surroundings in a more generalized way. As with other autonomous systems, getting the right data remains a key obstacle.
Sanders told TechCrunch that some tasks are not available in an open source model because they are not things humans commonly do, including navigating a minefield or operating a weapon system. His view is that some problems need classical robotics, while AI should be used where it is needed.
Cost may decide how widely UGVs are used
Forterra is not alone in chasing this problem. Scout AI raised $100 million earlier this year to train foundation models and build autonomous military platforms that include UGVs. Field AI and Overland AI are also trialling UGVs with the US military.
American military experts cited in the source article believe the technology is ready for investment, even with its limits. Wilkens said ground autonomy is achievable now and has already been seen.
Still, the Ukrainian feedback includes a direct challenge: make the vehicles cheaper. Forterra’s Lancers are not expensive for their category because they rely on Polaris’ commercial supply chain for the vehicle itself, but they are still too valuable to deploy as freely as UAVs.
That may be the next decisive issue. If attrition is expected on this battlefield, UGVs must be capable enough to help, rugged enough to survive difficult conditions, and affordable enough that losing some does not make commanders hesitate to use them. Ukraine’s experience suggests autonomous ground vehicles are already useful, but the path to wider deployment depends on closing the gap between battlefield value and battlefield loss.