20-ton monsters with hammers: As Ukraine builds the world’s largest fleet

According to Tony Blair Institute, the Ukrainian economy has not received $ 11 billion every year because of their replacement. If the sappers do everything by hand, it will take hundreds of years. Therefore, many cars are required to mine.

A few years ago, Ukraine did not have any large humanitarian mine. Today, according to the Ministry of Economy, the Ukrainian land is exchanged about 300 units. This is the largest park in the world, but it takes much more to clean the whole country.

There are few manufacturers of such complexes in the world, and they cost millions of dollars each. In order not to leave the land of the grandchildren, Ukraine has no choice, how to learn how to produce these machines on your own. And to make it like with weapons – cheap and massive.

The technology of production of these machines is not easy. Only in the fourth year of the full -scale war, the first Ukrainian models appeared, which are approaching imported analogues in quality.

Not only a headache, but also a large market, which is filled in particular by Western money, has appeared in Ukraine with the need for hundreds of thousands of hectares in Ukraine. And so domestic companies will start earning it with a real perspective to declare themselves in the world market.

What are the machines to mine? Demand can be manually and mechanized. When it comes to buildings, yards, forestry, the sappers do everything by hand. Mines are neutralized on the ground, and large explosive devices are exported by pyrotechnic machines to the place of utilization.

But when it comes to cleaning large open areas – fields, forest strips, technical platforms, roads, mechanized complexes are already used, which at the site neutralize most of the explosive devices, even if they are underground or in grass. And only after that the sappers finally check the site and give it to the customer.

Suffering groups can take small robotic systems, such as the Ukrainian NRC “Snake”. This robot enters the ammunition with a mine trall or breaks the explosives with hammers, paving the road with pyrotechnics. Now the Snake has been tested at the landfill and received a certificate of conformity.

There are also Ukrainian pyrotechnic machines. For example, Validus Special Auto has recently introduced its own model, equipped with a ground drone. The drone can reach inaccessible places and transport up to 500 kg of explosive objects to the car, and the truck itself delivers them to the disposal site.

But all the “dirty” work in the fields should be done by the large and strong machines for mine. These complexes are the most expensive and most complex among all machines. They put specialized equipment for any demining task.

For example, there is mine trall. It is a large cat that consists of metal disks. The weight of each disk is 350 kg, which allows the cat to lay land and vegetation, creating a track for the passage of other miners or sappers. Cream trall is effective for neutralizing anti -personnel mines.

Another type of working unit for mechanized complexes – chain. These are hammers suspended on dozens of chains that move at a speed of about 500 revolutions per minute. The device is evenly descending the soil and can fight mines of different types, including anti -tank, reaching depths up to 30 cm

By a similar principle works milling working body. It descends the soil and provokes the blasting of an explosive device that is located in the ground. Such machines are effective for grinding shrubs and tree residues in wooded terrain.

There are several other types of nozzles. For example ladlewho are preparing a passage for equipment or wrapping the land while falling asleep. Machines can also be installed crane manipulator to remove from the area of ​​unreasonable ammunition, shank from the jet fire systems and other explosives. Sometimes a crane manipulator may have A magnet nozzlewhich attracts metal elements and takes them to the place of disposal.

All these complex complexes must be certified at the State Research Institute of Tests and Certification. They make requirements for survivability, stability of communication and ease of management. For the machine to be operated, its working unit must withstand five blasting of an explosive device of 6 kg of TNT.

All these complex complexes must be certified at the State Research Institute of Tests and Certification. They make requirements for survivability, stability of communication and ease of management. For the machine to be operated, its working unit must withstand five blasting of an explosive device of 6 kg of TNT.

To test new samples and teach the Ministry of Defense sappers recently opened Specialized landfill. It has a strip of obstacles where light and heavy demining complexes, drones, ground work, metal detectors, special manual equipment, etc. will be tested.

“Once these machines were perceived as exotic and a very expensive story that replaces a person and makes the process safe. Now it is gradually starting to become a” intersection. ” Because these machines attack FPV-Dron. Government machines operating in the 20-kilometer zone, which are the SES, DSST, National Police-they are already starting to hunt, “-says Igor Bezkaravichi, Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine, which is responsible for the implementation of humanitarian mineral programs.

To test new samples and teach the Ministry of Defense sappers recently opened Specialized landfill. It has a strip of obstacles where light and heavy demining complexes, drones, ground work, metal detectors, special manual equipment, etc. will be tested.

It is not necessary to go far from the example. In June, during the agriculture of agricultural land in the liberated territories of the Izium district of Kharkiv region, the Russian drone attacked rescuers who served the Minewolf MV-370 machine. One Ukrainian sapper was killed.

The most scarce are large machines for demining. To obtain these complexes, Ukraine has three ways. The first is to import expensive models from Western countries. The second is to localize a collection of foreign machines in Ukraine. The third is to look for purely domestic technologies.

The most promising among them are the second and third options, because they allow you to save a lot of money. The pure import of hundreds of cars from the state, nor donors will not have enough money.

The first Ukrainian demining machines In the fourth year of a full -scale invasion, full Ukrainian models of mine machines that are able to compete with foreign samples began to appear.

For example, in the spring, the Kramatorsk Plant of Heavy machine tools (KPVV) presented its car. This enterprise is known primarily by the release of self -propelled artillery installations “Bogdan”, but during the Great War it has mastered many other products.

The Germina URCM-3000 complex is developed and tested in conjunction with the operator “Ukrainian Demining Services” (UDS), which shares with the developer its “field” experience and helps adjust new machines for the needs of sappers.

UDS already ordered Five Germina URCM-3000 cars. Their cost in the base configuration is slightly over € 500 thousand per unit. For comparison, the cost of foreign analogues is two to three times higher.

The CPV machine as of the spring of 2025 was only tested and certified.

In May, it became known about another domestic model – the Hart 5100 machine. She has already undergone certification and became the first completely ready to work with a domestic heavy machine for mine. Its cost is comparable to the CPV car.

The complex was developed by the Kharkiv company Xi Engineering. According to the company, it is 80% of Ukrainian components. Vadim Anosov, the Director of the Company, explains the low cost of the complex with lower labor costs and less appetites than foreign manufacturers.

The machine weighs 17.5 tons and is able to operate at speeds up to 1.5 km/h, neutralizing explosive objects of different types at a depth of 30 cm. “Hart 5100” is able to clean 2 hectares a day. In this case, all types of working units can be installed on the machine. For example, the hammers of the chain unit “Hart” are able to operate at a speed of 550 revolutions per minute.

“At the beginning of a full -scale war, we have 0 units of equipment for the needs of mine. Today it is almost 10 Ukrainian manufacturers. But this development is not to improve or process tractors, combines that we have seen earlier, but a completely different approach,” – said at the presentation of “Hart 5100”.

The Ukrainian complex is driven remotely at a distance of up to 600 m, and with the presence of a repeater – up to 1 km.

Among the imported Gart 5100 units contains a Volvo Swedish engine with a power of 320 hp, a hydraulic Bosch Rexroth system, a caterpillar and a roller-holder from the Italian Caterpillar Italian Plant. But all the load -bearing structure, cabinet elements, modules, working units, software, control system and control panels – are developed and manufactured in Ukraine.

The Kharkiv team began development of equipment for demining in 2022, responding to the request of Kharkiv OVA. Before that, Xi Engineering had experience in the development of various equipment for customers from Ukraine, Germany, China and other countries.

In August 2023, certification Has passed Their first small humanitarian mine is. It was created on the basis of a tractor from the Kharkiv plant of KhTZ, and served as the basis for the development of a completely new MP machine.3200, which is now being manufactured.

Mr.3200 is based on the units of the Kharkiv Tractor Plant and the Lozovsky Coval and Mechanical Plant, as well as its own “architecture” and Xi Engineering software.

Mr.3200 is designed to work with a cat trall that will destroy the grass and anti -personnel mines before the work of sappers or equipment. Its operating speed is 6 km/h.

The cost of the machine is much lower than Hart and is about $ 160,000, but it only complements, not replaces it. Mr.3200 – for soil preparation and destruction of threats to sappers, “Hart 5100” – for full -fledged.

But one thing is to develop, the other is to start producing massively. To date, the Kharkiv company of 30 people manufactures only one machine for humanitarian demining per month. So now a new production site is being built in a safer region of Ukraine that will allow to double production, and by the end of the year to release four cars per month.

And what about localized machines? Localized foreign machines have several advantages. First, technology and reliability tested for years. Secondly, more production experiences for scaling release on western and Ukrainian sites.

The Croatian complexes of Dok-Ing MV-4 and MV-10 are already being harvested in Ukraine. Their localization in Shepetivka engages A3Tech-Ukraine. It already completely produces the working body to these machines, bringing the level of localization to 12%.

In 2024, the Italian FAE began its car in Ukraine. The remote mechanized demining complex PT-300 D: Mine has received additional reservation and strengthening of the structure. And Slovak Way Industries began to gather in Ukraine their cars Bozena-5.

Components for complexes of humanitarian demining in Ukraine are not subject to duties and VAT. This applies to both purely Ukrainian machines and foreign models localized here.

But even despite the benefits and partial localization, foreign localized machines are still much more expensive than models of Ukrainian companies. They will probably become cheaper with increasing percentage of localization of components in Ukraine. But now it seems that the state needs to look for a balance between Ukrainian and foreign technologies in order to fully provide operators, so as not to stretch the demining process for hundreds of years.

And if Ukrainian companies are able to use the moment, bring their technology to maturity and fix themselves in the market, then it is possible over the years they will compete with the same Western machines in the world market.