July 13, 2025: Israel is once more upgrading its D9 combat bulldozers. The new version is called Robdozer and can be controlled remotely by an operator in a safe location. Israel plans to turn this into a fully autonomous D9, that only needs precise instructions on what to do. The D9 will then go ahead and complete the work with no human intervention. Hostile soldiers or civilians witnessing this will be amazed at this sort of activity.

First developed and used in 2006, the remote control D9 has become more capable as Israeli remote control and autonomous vehicle technology improves. Israel is a leader in this field and new developments tend to spread to all sorts of remote-controlled vehicles. The new tech provides the remote operator with more reliable and precise control over the unmanned D9 and better images of what could be seen from that D9.

The D9 had already gone through several major upgrades, especially when it came to better protection for the two-man crew and the most vulnerable components. An early addition was a cage of steel bars around the operator cab to defeat RPG warheads. The cab was already armored, including bullet and blast proof glass. The crew seats were upgraded to include protection from the blast force pressure of bombs adjacent to or under the vehicle. The D9 was built to survive such explosions but the crew needed additional protection as well. This comes in the form of seats designed to absorb most of the blast vibration, which would otherwise put the crew at risk for spinal and shock injuries.

For decades before the development of a combat bulldozer Israel, like most nations, turned older tanks into combat engineer vehicles by replacing the turret with an armored box for the operator, adding a bulldozer blade and other items. But if you just want to shove stuff around more effectively while under fire, you are better served by armoring a large commercial bulldozer. That is what Israel has been doing since the 1960s.

By 2009 Israel realized armor wasn’t enough and began converting all its D9 armored combat bulldozers to operate by remote control. For the United States the 62-ton D9 armored bulldozer has been an important tool for urban warfare after 2001 and was offered for export to allies. The armor kit adds fifteen tons to the weight of the commercial D9 and comes with suggestions for useful or necessary adjustments to mechanical and engine aspects of the D9.

Although the Israelis pioneered the use of special explosives to blast entry holes through walls, so troops can quickly get to their objectives, the D9 proved an even more effective solution. The D9 lets you bash through walls, and buildings, much faster. The D9 can even shake the enemy out of some buildings. With those capabilities the D9 proved very effective in urban combat. The Israelis often mounted a machine-gun on their D9s to provide protection from the increasing number of attacks on these vehicles. The D9s are pretty sturdy, often surviving large roadside bombs and several RPG hits. But the D9s are not invulnerable and have increasingly become a target for enemy attack. Despite the armor kit and machine-gun, D9 drivers sometimes get killed or wounded, and the vehicles put out of action. There was a need for a remote-control option and Israel was a pioneer in developing the tech that can turn any vehicle into an effective remotely controlled one.

The remote- control version of the D9, called Black Thunder, was developed in 2006 as a secret program that was only revealed when so many troops were now aware of it. Even the Palestinians were talking about it, having been confronted with Black Thunder D9s during the 2009 war in Gaza.

Black Thunder D9s retain the armor kit but, instead of an operator, the cab contains the electronics and radio gear needed to run the dozer remotely. Several cameras and other sensors are mounted on the outside. An operator, sitting in a nearby armored vehicle or truck, views several flat screen displays, and operates the controls. Any soldiers with lots of video game experience can quickly master the remote operation of a D9.