Humanoids Sent to Ukraine
Two prototype humanoid robots built by a San Francisco company have been deployed to Ukraine’s front lines for reconnaissance and resupply missions — a first real-world battlefield test of bipedal robots. The machines aren’t weaponized yet but are being evaluated for mobility, autonomy, and reliability under fire, raising big questions about dual-use tech and defense-grade robustness reported.
Foundation, the San Francisco–based startup behind the Phantom MK‑1, lists Sankaet Pathak and former Marine Mike LeBlanc among its founders and [emerged publicly in 2024]techcrunch.com. The firm says it already holds roughly [$24 million in U.S. research contracts]time.com with the Army, Navy and Air Force, including an SBIR Phase III that the company describes as giving it formal vendor status. The Phantom MK‑1’s published specs put it at about 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) tall and ~80–82 kg (175–180 lb), with a quoted payload of ~20 kg (≈44 lb) and a camera‑first, LLM‑assisted vision stack driving whole‑body motion. humanoid.guide Foundation’s manufacturing and commercial plan targets up to 50,000 Phantoms by the end of 2027, with a leasing model roughly quoted at $100,000 per robot per year and a staged ramp that the company says includes small initial runs followed by rapid scale in 2026–2027. eweek.com Company demonstrations and reporting note physical manipulation of firearms and legacy small arms (revolvers, pistols, shotguns and a dummy M‑16) during tests, and co‑founder Mike LeBlanc has publicly argued for using robots to take battlefield risk off humans. futurism.com Time and other outlets report Foundation plans to expand military testing beyond bench trials—examples include upcoming Marine Corps “methods of entry” exercises to train Phantoms on door‑breach tasks and ongoing conversations with the Department of Homeland Security about border applications. time.com Foundation’s own materials and multiple press pieces describe current factory pilots and a “physics‑action” task‑to‑motion model as the product backbone, framing the Phantom as a dual‑use platform for both industrial automation and defense customers. foundation.bot
