WHAT IT IS
Shturm (Russian: «Штурм», “Assault”) is a Uralvagonzavod heavy robotic assault complex for the Russian Ministry of Defence. It is a T-72 / T-90 family hull whose fighting compartment can be empty, driven and fought from a separate crewed control vehicle on the same class of chassis. Onboard driving controls are retained, so the same hull can still be crewed.
Work under a Defence Ministry order is dated from about 2018. A complete combat vehicle plus control vehicle was photographed in trials in July 2025 at Nizhny Tagil. The first public exercise use was Tsentr-2026 (Center-2026) at Chebarkul, Chelyabinsk region, shown to the president on 2 October 2026. Uralvagonzavod said T-72B3M uncrewed vehicles with a tank module and a BMPT module gave fire support to assault units.
WHAT IT IS FOR
First echelon of an assault in streets, rubble, and mine belts, where a crewed tank crew is the thing being conserved. The shortened gun is for overhang, not range: a 4 m barrel so the turret can swing between buildings. A dozer blade clears obstacles. The control vehicle stays back. Published control radius is about 3 km. Remote speed is cited up to 40 km/h. Planned mass up to 50 t.
COMBAT VEHICLES
Two modules were on the 2026 exercise. The rest of the family is project paper until a hull is shown.
Gun vehicle. Shortened 125 mm smoothbore D-414, barrel about 4,000 mm, autoloader for 22 rounds, coaxial 7.62 mm PKTM, dozer blade. Extra ERA on turret cheeks and hull, heavy side skirts. This is the vehicle in the RIA Novosti Chebarkul frames.
BMPT-module vehicle. Uncrewed turret in the tank-support style, described in October 2026 accounts as twin 30 mm. Uralvagonzavod kept this separate from a crewed BMPT named Spiridon that also covered the same exercise.
Earlier UVZ concept set, not confirmed at Chebarkul: an RPO / Shmel-M rocket-flamethrower carrier; a twin 30 mm 2A42 module with PKTM and an RPO launcher; a pack of 16 × 220 mm thermobaric rockets. A 152 mm gun hull has been discussed and not shown.
HOW CONTROL WORKS
Three operators in the control vehicle take commander, gunner, and driver. Published interface: joysticks, first-person video, tablet panels, multichannel radio. One control vehicle was described as able to run a platoon of combat vehicles inside the 3 km bubble. The link is line-of-sight radio, not autonomy. A later note said a future fit would use the Rassvet satellite channel; that is not the 2026 exercise fit.
The combat vehicle is optionally crewed. Remote mode is the assault mode. Manual mode is how the hull moves when the link is down or the range is a road march.
CHASSIS
Donor is the T-72B3M on the 2026 vehicles; the project also cites T-90-family hulls. Engine, gearbox, and running gear are the tank’s. No separate published power figure. The robotic fit is the empty fighting compartment, the video and radio stack, the short gun or the alternate module, and the blade.
NOT THESE
Uran-9 — light remote fire-support vehicle, not a tank hull.
Marker — Android Technics research UGV, different plant.
BMPT Terminator — crewed tank-support vehicle. Spiridon at the same exercise was this class, not the uncrewed module.
Prokhod / remote mineclearers — engineering robots, no 125 mm assault gun.
CAVEATS
TASS described the Chebarkul vehicles as uncrewed T-72B3M combat vehicles and did not use the name Shturm in every dispatch. Militarnyi and UVZ-linked accounts did. Weight, 40 km/h, and 3 km are project figures, not a measured card for the exercise hull. Four-variant family is a plan. Roof protection against small drones was still called incomplete on 2026 prototypes. “Robotic” here means remote crew, not an unmanned decision loop.
STATUS
Development prototype. Exercise debut October 2026. Not a line battalion.
IN ONE SENTENCE
Shturm is Uralvagonzavod’s remote assault complex on a T-72B3M hull — short 125 mm D-414 or a BMPT module, three operators in a tank-chassis control vehicle out to about 3 km — a crewed link with the option to put men back in the tank, shown at Tsentr-2026 and not yet a fielded fleet.