Russian Defense Ministry to order hundreds of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles until 2020

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Defence & Security News - Russia

 
 
Monday, October 13, 2014 11:59 AM
 
Russian Defense Ministry to order hundreds of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles until 2020
Russian Ministry of Defense will order the production of several hundred Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Director of UAV development programs at Russia’s Vega Radio Engineering Corporation Arkady Syroyezhko said on Monday, October 13.
     

Short- and medium-range UAVs market is a completely new branch of production in Russian Defense Industry
     
According to our estimates, the Ministry of Defense will need several hundred UAVs until 2020. We need to think about how and where to produce the requested amount of hardware the client needs. We have set up an investment project, and next year we are launching a short-range [UAV] systems production facility in Rybinsk [a city in Russia’s Yaroslavl region],” Syroyezhko said.

Syroyezhko added that short- and medium-range UAVs market is a completely new branch of production, and Russia does not have an adequate basis for such industry just yet.

Otherwise, Russia does not yet have the weapons suitable for equipping its Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) but such possibility is now being discussed, Director of UAV development programs at Russia’s Vega Radio Engineering Corporation Arkady Syroyezhko told today.

No certified ammunition suitable for our [Russian] UAVs currently exists. Discussion is now underway on possible use of the existing ammunition for large drones,” Syroyezhko said.

According to Syroyezhko, modern air armament had been developed for piloted aircraft, the mass and the size of which significantly exceed those of unmanned aircraft. Mass development of small-sized arms specifically for compact UAVs had already started in foreign countries, Syroyezhko stated.

Vega had already designed a new tethered aerostat system, able to remain at high altitude for an extended period of time, as well as a small unmanned airship that is yet to be completed, Syroyezhko said.

Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry announced it would spend $9.2 billion on acquiring new drones and training military personnel to operate UAVs before 2020.