Russia's Shturm uncrewed assault tank failed during its debut at the Tsentr-2026 exercise, according to Tom's Hardware. The vehicle repeatedly lost its command-and-control radio link with a separate command vehicle, forcing organizers to switch to a human driver for a demonstration in front of President Vladimir Putin. Even then, the tank got stuck in a muddy ditch, with its tracks and front hull buried.
Designed by Uralvagonzavod, the Shturm is built on modified Soviet-era T-72 and T-90 chassis and is intended mainly for urban combat. It can carry a shortened 125mm D-414 main gun, or twin 30mm cannons and thermobaric rocket launchers. Its defining feature is remote operation from a crewed command vehicle within roughly 3 km, though it also has space for an onboard manual driver.
The Russian Defense Ministry initially said Putin had been shown the new vehicles and that they provided fire support during the exercise; failure reports emerged later. A Russian armor expert cited by Defense Blog questioned the design, saying the engine compartment and turret roof are almost unprotected—areas drones often target—and that dependence on a command post 3 to 4 km away with direct line of sight is impractical without reliable communications such as Starlink, which has blocked Russian drones.