The Ukrainian Army has a new weapon in the fight against Russian invaders: Valve’s Steam Deck Handheld.
As Vice reportOf Ukraine TPO media recently posted some videos and photos of a new variant of the Saber weapon system on his Facebook page. The Saber, whose full name is Saber Remote Weapon Station, was built from scratch by Ukraine when Russia first invaded Crimea, and paid for by a crowdfunding website set up to fund Ukraine’s defence
The Saber is essentially a sentry gun, a remote controlled weapons platform that can be placed where needed and then operated remotely with no risk (or reduced risk) to the user. Although originally designed as a defense against UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), a true Sentry Gun quickly found itself useful in all sorts of battlefield situations where a defensive position was required.
The first edition of the Saber (seen in the video above) was controlled with a joystick and lined up with a separate monitor system, but in a 2023 update the Saber comes with something more modern: a steam deck capable of both the controls and also to unite the screen on one device.
Here’s footage of the latest model in action – which as you can see has had further improvements across the board, reducing its size and streamlining its design – showing how the user can sit protected in a nearby ditch while the Weapon fires:
This latest model of the Saber can fire a range of different ammo types and can be either ground or vehicle mounted. TPO say the effective range of the connection of the steam deck with the weapon is about 500 meters (1600 feet), and that in addition to the direct camera feed it is also equipped with a number of additional sensors.
