Several unmanned aircraft systems and a ground control station have been delivered to an airbase of the Russian Pacific Fleet in Kamchatka, fleet spokesman Capt. 1st Rank Roman Martov told Interfax-AVN on Thursday.
“According to airbase commander Col. Andrei Kovalyov, the forces deployed in Kamchatka were the first in the Pacific Fleet to create a UAS unit. The unit operates six domestically built UAS. The unit servicemen have been trained at an airbase in Kubinka, Moscow region,” Martov said.
The Kamchatkan UAS unit will search for, detect and identify ground sites and transfer data to command posts. Martov said the Yelizovo airbase had accommodated a drone command centre and maintenance network and the servicemen continued to master their knowledge of the new hardware.
Russia is aware of the potential of unmanned aircraft systems, but does not intend to use them the way other countries do, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at an Air Force development conference on Thursday.
“Today they are used more and more widely in the world. We won’t do it the way other countries do. This is not a game, this is not a computer game, these are serious combat complexes both shock and reconnaissance ones, and it is absolutely clear that they have good prospects,” Vladimir Putin said on Thursday while opening a conference on the issues of the development of the Air Force.
The Head of State has also noted that in the framework of the state defense order, in 2013, the armed forces had received 86 aircraft and more than 100 helicopters. Next year, it is planned to deliver another 120 aircraft and 90 helicopters and, by 2020, the Air Force is to receive nearly 1.6 thousand units of new technical equipment. Thus, the proportion of new aircraft in the army should reach 70%.
The President has also demanded strict compliance with deadlines and the monitoring of aircraft production quality.
The Russian government is discussing a project to establish a new integrated body that will develop and produce unmanned aircraft systems, a source in the country’s defence industry said.
“If such initiatives are put into practice, this new structure, which can tentatively be called Bespilotprom, may appear on the basis of some corporation controlled by the state. It will include some state-owned industrial assets engaged in efforts to design and build advanced unmanned aircraft systems,” he said.
The main goal of this organization will be to “ensure better coordination as part of Russian-funded projects to develop new unmanned systems,” he added.
A Russian unmanned aircraft expert, Denis Fedutinov, questioned the feasibility of establishing an organisation that would specialize exclusively in unmanned aircraft systems.
“The state already has plenty of instruments such as certain agencies that coordinate programs in the sphere of unmanned aircraft systems,” the expert said.
The Vega radio engineering company is Russia’s chief developer of unmanned aircraft, he said.Vega, which was established in 2003, includes Moscow-based enterprises Kulon and Topaz, as well as the Luch Design Bureau, in the town of Rybinsk, Yaroslavl region.
In 2012, the Russian Defence Ministry formed a department responsible for R&D efforts towards unmanned aircraft projects.The interdepartmental working group for unmanned aircraft systems under the auspices of the government’s Military Industrial Commission has been coordinating this work.
Another expert, who asked not to be named, said that the appearance of a state corporation specializing in unmanned aircraft would negatively impact competition among developers and producers of such systems.
It is known that several major privately owned enterprises, including the Tranzas Group of Companies, based in St. Petersburg, have started to design unmanned aircraft in recent years
Source: The Voice of Russia
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