Antonov State Enterprise (Kyiv) is working on a project on the creation of the strategic attack remotely piloted air system meeting NATO standards as part of defense cooperation.
Director of the attack remotely piloted air system program at Antonov Mykola Vorobiov said on October 10 at the sixth International Scientific Conference entitled “Challenges of coordination of military technical and defense industry policies in Ukraine” as part of the 15th international specialized exhibition Arms and Security 2018 held in Kyiv on October 9 through October 12 that the issue of remotely piloted air systems is one of the priority issues of the enterprise in the new conditions of research and advanced development.
Vorobiov said that along with the Horlytsia multipurpose tactical unmanned aerial system being created by Antonov under its initiative as part of Ukrainian defense industrial cooperation, today the enterprise is working on the creation of a strategic attack remotely piloted air system with a maximum take-off weight capacity of 6 tonnes.
“This is a very serious complex, it’s not possible for Ukraine to make it alone,” the program director said, adding: “This is possible in the option of defense cooperation with a foreign customer… with a portfolio of orders. We are working together with Ukrspecexport in this direction.”
“It is very important that this complex is created meeting the NATO standard STANAG4671 and will be able to fly in civil airspace,” he said.
Vorobiov said that according to the conditions of the cooperation being worked out, the creation of the platform and the engines is provided by the Ukrainian side, the foreign partner is responsible for the supply of the equipment. Today, equipment for the system has already been agreed with the foreign partner, he said.
Photo: The initial flight test of the Antonov’s prototype strike drone “Horlytsya” takes stage at the Hostomel Airport on Nov. 8, 2017 – Volodymyr Petrov
Source: KyivPost