Russia Is Making Explosive Drones Out Of Toy Hoverboards

By: bitcoin ethereum news|2025/05/03 06:45:01
0
Share
copy
A Russian hoverboard drone explodes. Via WarTranslated It suddenly makes sense why Russian troops in Ukraine were observed with a substantial number of toy hoverboards. A video montage that circulated online on Friday depicts the explosive ground robots—a pair of the two-wheeled hoverboards attached to an anti-tank mine—blowing up purported Ukrainian fortifications presumably somewhere along the 700-mile front line of Russia’s 39-month wider war on Ukraine. Last summer, the Dva Mayora volunteer organization in Russia developed the hoverboard unmanned ground vehicles and began distributing copies to Russian units. Half a year later in February, Russians were seen loading a bunch of the $100 hoverboards into a truck somewhere at or near the front. It’s possible they’d received them as donations from supporters back home—or stolen them from Ukrainian homes in the occupied zone. Regardless, it should be apparent now that most of the hoverboards along the front line aren’t for riding—they’re for making one-way explosive drones. Flying robots already dominate the battleground in Ukraine. The hundreds of thousands of tiny first-person-view drones Russian and Ukrainian forces deploy every month account for the majority of battlefield casualties—70 percent, according to The New York Times . By comparison, ground robots are less ubiquitous, and for obvious reasons. It’s easier for a remote-controlled vehicle to fly unobstructed through the air than it is to crawl over rough terrain. Thanks to their internal gyroscopes, hoverboards are extremely stable compared to traditional wheeled vehicles. A hoverboard UGV can speed across the front-line terrain faster than other ground robots. And the low cost of the toys mean the mine-laden ‘bots are expendable. No need for a regiment to save them for only the most valuable targets. That the Russians appear to be using their hoverboards to build exploding robots doesn’t mean they won’t eventually ride them into battle. It’s worth noting the growing prevalence of surplus civilian electric scooters in the inventories of Russian regiments. After losing 17,000 armored vehicles and other heavy equipment in Ukraine, the Kremlin is growing truly desperate for battlefield transportation—and has sent troops on assaults on e-scooters, Lada compact cars, aging GAZ-69 trucks and at least one bus. If and when toy hoverboards become more valuable as assault vehicles than drone components, they too might join the war-scooters and compact cars. At least as an assault vehicle, a hoverboard stands some chance of surviving a battle. As an explosive drone, a hoverboard heads out exactly once. Follow me on Twitter . Check out my website or some of my other work. Send me a secure tip. Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2025/05/02/russia-is-making-explosive-drones-out-of-toy-hoverboards/

You may also like

Reduced to a hacker's ATM yet standing tall, the theft of Venus reflects the awkwardness of DeFi

After experiencing over $100 million in bad debts in at least four incidents, Venus remains the leading player in the lending sector on the BNB Chain, making it a rare "survivor" in the crypto space.

Under geopolitical conflicts, a policy window has opened. Can Hong Kong seize this wave of RWA opportunities?

The RWA wave sweeps the globe: the scale of on-chain real assets surged fourfold in one year, exceeding 25 billion USD. Hong Kong, backed by the mainland's "going out" policy window, is accelerating the tokenization process of physical assets from entertainment to real estate.

For Web3, this time Cai Wensheng is determined to get his hands dirty

This industry has experienced too many undignified endings; a bull market and a recovery cannot solve the problem. In the end, it will rely on projects that truly succeed and ecosystems that are genuinely established to win a dignified victory for the crypto OGs.

Ethereum Foundation Sets Up a "Dead Man's Switch," Will the Community Buy It?

The Ethereum Foundation's Manifesto Has Torn the Community Apart: Punk Idealism or Disconnect from Reality?

ConversationArthur Hayes: AI Will Spark Financial Crisis, Wait for Central Bank Money Printing Before Buying Bitcoin

「War Means Printing Money, and Printing Money is Good for Bitcoin」

From Power to Chip: How the Average Person Can Participate in the Wealth Opportunities of the AI Era

Everyone is talking about AI applications, but the real money-maker is the person selling the "shovel."

Popular coins

Latest Crypto News

Read more