One of Russia’s manufacturers of unmanned aircarft, Zala Aero, has provided the Russian government with more than 70 unmanned systems, each containing several aircraft. According to an article published Monday on Open Democracy Russia.
The Kremlin’s romance with drones started in 2006, when the Interior Ministry deployed a Zala 421-04M to monitor street protests at a G8 summit in St. Petersburg.
According to its Zala executive Maksim Shinkevich, almost every Interior Ministry air group has a UAS these days. Their favourite one? The Zala 421-08M, a 5.5-pound, 31-inch wingspan unmanned aircraft equipped with a camera that can fly for 90 minutes at almost 12,000 feet. At the right angle, it can take a quality snapshot of a car’s license plate. What about, say, a protester’s face? “Capturing faces in any detail would however require a very heavy aircraft with a good camera; more precisely, with a heavy, specialized platform,” Shinkevich told Open Democracy Russia.
No matter, these small drones, like the Zala 421-06, are perfect to monitor dissatisfied Russians marching down the streets. “They will be used mainly to maintain public order during local demonstrations and marches, when we shall be keeping watch from the air to avoid any incidents,” said Sergei Kanunnikov, the head of the air operation center in the Department of the Interior of the eastern state of Amur.
Unmanned aircraft will also be deployed at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, a Russian city on the Black Sea.
Photo: Zala-421-06
Source: CNN