The work on the Altius heavy unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with a combat load of up to two tons is planned to be completed within a year, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said. The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the information through its Facebook page.
Borisov made this statement in an interview available on the Zvezda TV channel’s website.
“I believe that we will complete the work on the Altius heavy unmanned aerial vehicle with a combat load of up to two tons within a year,” Borisov said.
According to him, the Russian Armed Forces “have unmanned aerial vehicles being at different stages, as a rule, at final ones, which will make up the mainstay of the UAV fleet in the imminent future.”
“I mean reconnaissance, attack and electronic warfare systems with a payload ranging between several kilograms and two tons,” he added.
A test model of the Altius long-endurance reconnaissance UAV was unveiled at the Army 2015 international military and technical forum.
Source: Air Recognition
Why is it that russia was able to build BURAN a space shuttle but not a UAV for such a long time? Is it because of the power to wt ratio of the engine as reported in some news media or something else? Is it also because several russian scientists have been lured with money by US which takes advantage of the cheap education provided by russia and other countries without incurring any costs itself?