Russian arms manufacturer Kalashnikov is showing off its latest and greatest death machines at the Army-2018 international forum in Moscow this week. And one of its most stunning designs is something straight out of Robocop. The only problem? It looks like it’s just a statue.
Today, Kalashnikov released photos from the exhibition, including images of what the Kremlin-funded propaganda agency RT described as a “futuristic mechanised walker concept.” Kalashnikov says the walker could be used to solve “engineering and combat tasks,” but it’s not clear that it has any moving parts right now. It’s one thing to build a “concept” walker. It’s something else entirely to build a walker that actually… walks.
RT also published a video of the walker concept, but that doesn’t give us any more information about whether the thing actually moves. Kalashnikov says development of the device will be displayed at the next military exhibition.
The design of the walker looks like a cross between an AT-ST from Star Wars and the ED-209 from 1987’s Robocop. The introductory scene for the ED-209 is one of the most famous from Robocop for reasons you can see in the clip below. So it’s no wonder that humans are a bit terrified anytime something like this Russian “walker” gets trotted out. Thankfully it doesn’t appear to be its own trotting quite yet.
Gizmodo has reached out to Kalashnikov for more information about its futuristic war machine. But it seems like humanity might be safe. For now.
[Kalashnikov and RT]