SĒLIJA, Latvia — Roughly two hours from Latvia’s capital city, Riga, a Ukrainian-made unmanned ground vehicle stomps over small trees, swiftly clearing an uneven and wild grazing land. Dubbed ‘Simba’ and taking part in a NATO exercise for the first time, the robotic platform belongs to a Ukrainian manufacturer that has kept a low profile under the name UGV Laboratory.
Simba was handpicked for testing unmanned systems, along with a handful of other robots, under Task Force X for the Eastern Flank Deterrence Initiative, aimed at accelerating the procurement and integration of new land-focused technologies. The UGV was among hundreds of uncrewed platforms used in the Crystal Arrow 2026 military exercise, organized here from May 5-15.
During the exercise, it primarily served in a logistics role, delivering supplies and mission-critical cargo — similar to what company representatives say it does back home in the fight against Russian troops, where it equips military units.
“Simba UGV has undergone extensive battlefield use in logistics and support roles across different operational environments. A single platform has accumulated a total distance travelled of more than 1,600 kilometres (about 994 miles) across all assigned missions,” a company representative told Breaking Defense on the condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
