Russia disguised a Chinese robot as a “ninja” and presented it at a military exhibition

It is already well known that Russia cannot even produce chips to equip Lada cars, let alone develop an autonomous robot to “roam” the battlefield armed with rocket launchers.

But since it’s good to make propaganda out of such a thing, the state agency RIA Novosti has presented for Russians pictures from a military technology exhibition, in which a glimpse of a robotic “dog” can be glimpsed, most likely copied by China after the famous Spot, manufactured by the American company Boston Dynamics.

Regardless of its origins, the robot produced by a little-known Chinese company (Unitree) and called simply Go1, appears disguised in a “costume” reminiscent of ninja movies, the only visible equipment and clearly of Russian production being the intentional RPG missile launcher, intended to be operated by soldiers. Another high-tech item left in plain sight, but probably not from Russia, is the thermal imaging targeting system. Most likely, like the RPG system, the thermal imaging camera is just added for decoration, the little robot whose cameras are almost completely covered by the ninja suit is more likely to be controlled by remote control, executing predefined commands.

Amusingly, the project based on hybrid (Chinese-Russian) technology is signed by a Russian company called “Intellect Machine”, which gives most of the credit for the product demonstrated at the Army 2022 exhibition.

For those interested, the Unitree Go1 robot can also be ordered from Romania, directly from the Chinese manufacturer for the equivalent of $2,700, serving as an excellent party attraction. The rocket launcher can be replaced by a water gun, or confetti launcher, depending on preference.