European UGV maker sends hundreds more ground robots to Ukraine

ARX Robotics is expanding its deployed fleet in Ukraine to five times its initial size, the European unmanned ground vehicle maker announced in May 2026, securing a new contract to supply several hundred additional GEREON uncrewed ground vehicles to Ukraine’s Defense Forces and cementing its position as the largest supplier of Western UGVs to Ukraine.

The contract comes as Ukraine is scaling its use of unmanned ground systems at a pace that would have seemed ambitious even a year ago. Ukrainian officials recently announced plans to procure 25,000 new ground robots in the first half of 2026 alone, as part of a broader effort to transition frontline logistics fully to unmanned systems. ARX Robotics, with hundreds of vehicles already in operation or contracted for delivery, is the primary Western supplier feeding that demand. The latest award adds several hundred GEREON vehicles to an already substantial deployed fleet, pushing the company’s total operational footprint in Ukraine to five times what it was when it first began supplying the country.

The GEREON is ARX Robotics’ medium-sized autonomous UGV, built around a modular design that allows it to transition between mission configurations without structural modification. The platform combines scalable hardware with autonomy software, giving military units the ability to adapt the vehicle to evolving battlefield requirements rather than acquiring separate platforms for each mission type. In Ukraine, the vehicles are deployed primarily in logistics, casualty evacuation, resupply, and other high-threat operations that would otherwise require soldiers to move through terrain under observation by enemy drones and artillery. Additional payload configurations can be integrated over time based on operational requirements and coordination with Ukraine’s Defense Forces, according to ARX Robotics’ announcement.

“We are seeing a clear shift in modern combat operations: unmanned ground systems are no longer a niche capability but are becoming a key enabler and the future backbone of frontline logistics,” Marc Wietfeld, CEO and co-founder of ARX Robotics, said in the company’s announcement. “The battlefield reality shows that unmanned ground systems have become indispensable to sustaining forces, reducing risk to soldiers, and preserving the operational edge,” Wietfeld said. The language is not marketing. Ukraine’s frontline experience over three years of full-scale war has produced a body of operational data on what unmanned ground systems can do that no peacetime exercise program could replicate, and ARX Robotics has been collecting that data in real time.

Igor Kornilov, CEO of ARX Robotics Ukraine, described the relationship with Ukraine’s Defense Forces as the core of the company’s development cycle. “This contract goes beyond delivery — it marks a decisive step in scaling an end-to-end capability built alongside Ukraine’s Defense Forces. Our close collaboration allows us to act on frontline feedback at speed, continuously refining and evolving our systems to meet real-world demands,” Kornilov said in the announcement. That feedback loop between the factory and the front is the competitive advantage that active deployment in a live conflict creates. A UGV manufacturer whose vehicles are operating daily in contested environments, generating failure data, performance data, and user feedback from soldiers under actual combat stress, is improving its product at a rate that peacetime customers and competitors cannot match.

As part of the fleet expansion, ARX Robotics will strengthen its industrial footprint in Ukraine alongside local supply partners, according to the company’s announcement. The company has been scaling manufacturing capabilities across its sites to meet growing demand, with the Ukraine expansion accelerating delivery timelines, deepening industrial cooperation, and building supply chain resilience. The company will also enhance in-country operational support, providing field training and on-site technical assistance to military units operating the GEREON vehicles. That support structure matters as much as the vehicles themselves — a platform that sits unused because operators haven’t been trained effectively, or that breaks down without accessible maintenance support, doesn’t contribute to combat power regardless of its technical specifications.

“At ARX Robotics, we stand ready to support partners facing urgent security challenges through unmanned land systems designed to be deployed quickly, adapted to real operational needs, and scaled at pace. With this contract, we demonstrate that European defence technology can move at the speed the theatre of combat demands — and deliver where it matters most,” he said.

Ukraine has made unmanned ground systems a declared priority at a scale that dwarfs what any other military has attempted in active operations. Twenty-five thousand ground robots in six months is not an incremental procurement. It is a structural shift in how Ukraine intends to sustain its forces and reduce casualties in a war that has already consumed enormous numbers of soldiers in exactly the logistics and resupply missions that UGVs are designed to perform. ARX Robotics, now the largest Western supplier in that program, is building the industrial and operational infrastructure to keep pace with a demand signal that shows no sign of slowing.