General Martin Herem, a former commander in chief of the Estonian Defence Forces, will join Estonian robotics and autonomous systems developer Milrem Robotics as a military strategy adviser in August.
According to a statement from Mirrem, Helem’s role will be to bridge the gap between end-user requirements and product development, specifically leading the process of evaluating lessons learned in Ukraine and translating them into future land robotic use cases. Helem will also advise the company’s management, business development and capabilities development departments on decision-making from a military user perspective.
“Mirrem Robotics has extensive deployment of ground robotic systems in various countries, and it is crucial that this new capability dovetails with and complements existing defense capabilities,” Mirrem CEO Kurdar Vahsi said in a statement.
“General Mirrem has extensive knowledge on how to build deployable military capabilities in an efficient and smart manner. He will assist Mirrem in delivering better and more adapted system-level solutions based on ground robotics,” he added.
Former Commander of the Estonian Defence Forces, General Martin Herem.
Ukrainian know-how applied to future robotics
“The war in Ukraine and the battlefield use of Milrem Robotics’ THeMIS and other ground robots have demonstrated the importance of these systems and the increasing need to further develop them to better fulfill their mission of keeping soldiers as far away from danger as possible,” Herem said.
“My goal is to ensure that what we learn on the battlefield in Ukraine is implemented into future robotic systems.”
General Herem served as Commander of the Estonian Defence Forces from December 2018 until the end of June 2024. He joined the army in 1992. He served as Rector of the Estonian National Defence College from 2013 to 2016 and Chief of Staff at the Estonian Defence Forces Headquarters from 2016 to 2018. General Herem was one of the members who re-established the paramilitary Estonian Defence League in 1990.
Milrem is an Estonian-founded robotics and autonomous systems developer with offices in Estonia, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Poland and the U.S. The company is known for its THeMIS and Multiscope UGVs, Type-X Robotic Combat Vehicles and MIFIK intelligent autonomy capabilities for defense platforms.
