Ukrainian 3D-printed wheels aim to keep battlefield robots moving
Print&Live UA and iSCALE 3D say their 3D-printed wheels have survived field and combat trials on Ukrainian unmanned ground vehicles.
Ukraine is testing a new answer to one of the most vulnerable parts of an unmanned ground vehicle: the tyre. Print&Live UA and iSCALE 3D have completed field and combat trials of 3D-printed airless wheels, with the developers saying small-batch production is already supplying combat units.1
Why the wheels matter
Pneumatic tyres can puncture or lose pressure after shrapnel, blast debris, rubble, barbed wire or frozen ground. A disabled unmanned ground vehicle can be expensive to recover and can expose personnel to additional danger. The reported wheels use a rounded tread, enclosed sidewalls and a two-piece rim, removing the need for inflation and routine pressure maintenance.1
The design is built around an adaptive digital lattice made from elastomers and polymer composites. The developers say stiffness, damping and geometry can be adjusted for a particular vehicle without rebuilding a production line. They also claim the rounded profile can reduce rolling resistance and extend operating range by up to 30% compared with imported airless alternatives.12
Tested with Ukrainian UGVs
The wheels have reportedly been tested with Ukrainian Defence Forces units, including on a TARGAN 3K 244 EVO 1 unmanned ground vehicle. Coverage from 3D Printing Industry says that vehicle travelled 210 kilometres on a test range and then 151 kilometres across 11 winter combat missions while carrying cargo and evacuating a wounded person.2
A separate trial used a Rys Pro UGV over boggy and frozen terrain. The wheels reportedly retained their load-bearing capacity without delamination or structural cracking. Militarnyi reports a wheel-set weight of 32–56 kilograms, while the developers put the price of a full set at about €680.23
Those figures come from reporting and developer claims rather than an independently audited performance study. TechRadar also notes that the wheels do not automatically beat every conventional pneumatic set on weight, so the practical case rests on their puncture resistance, repairability and performance in sustained use.1
Repairs without specialist machinery
The two-piece rim is intended to make replacement possible without a tyre-changing machine or press. That matters for vehicles operating away from conventional workshops, where a damaged wheel can otherwise become a logistics problem rather than a quick repair.
The project is now described as having moved beyond research and development. More evidence from long-term deployments will be needed to establish how the printed wheels cope with repeated impacts, mud, ice and uneven loading, but the approach targets a very specific weakness in frontline robotics.
Our opinion
This is a more convincing use of 3D printing than a flashy prototype that never leaves a lab. A wheel that can be digitally tuned, repaired with basic tools and kept running after the surrounding terrain has tried to destroy it solves a blunt, practical problem. The headline range and weight claims still need independent verification, but replacing an air-filled failure point with a field-serviceable printed component is exactly the kind of engineering iteration that makes unmanned vehicles more useful.
For now, the strongest claim is not that these wheels are universally better than tyres. It is that Ukrainian developers have produced a combat-tested alternative with a credible route from design file to small-batch supply.