UAVs in Russian Armed Forces: News #2

Is it true that no domestic engine for the orion is even close to being ready?

they have cloned the Austrian/Canadian Rotax engine 912-914 .... something like that
Russian clone
APD-115 - its only an air-cooled flat-4 .... hardly a challenge for people who can build rocket engines
apparently a company called Agat make them

CIAM have also made a 150hp Wankel engine for drones .... to be used from 2024 apparently ... PD150T
(seems Israelis and Iranians have been using wankel engines in drones for years
it suits them well Wankel engines love just sitting in a rev band
and drones .... well they just drone at the same speed .....
much smaller and lighter )

there's also a Russian clone of the 85hp engine used in the Forpost-R - another flat-4 air cooled engine

the issue was never whether they could make the engines
it was always about - recovering the capital investment via decent production volumes - in a commercial sense

but that is all irrelevant re national security .... and the defence dept's deep pockets

anyone know what book they talking about or how to receive it? https://www.aorti.ru/media/news/spetsialisty-gruppy-kompaniy-rti-stali-soavtorami-knigi-o-bespilotnoy-aviatsii/

Specialists of the RTI group of companies became co-authors of the book about unmanned aircraft
22.04.2022
Managers and leading specialists of RTI JSC as part of a team of authors took part in writing the book "Unmanned Aircraft: History, Application, Technological Prospects".

Over the past few decades, we have seen a rapid growth of aircraft unmanned technologies and, when we say "drone" or "drone", we represent an aircraft. But in fact, it all began in the 19th century with an unmanned radio-controlled ship, which was designed by physicist and engineer Nikola Tesla. Inspired by tesla's success, the next unmanned, but already an aircraft, was created by military engineer Charles Kettering.

The very first drone in Russia was created in September 1916 by Staff Captain of the Imperial Russian Army Georgy Antonovich Yablonsky. The unmanned aerial vehicle created by him received signals from the control point via wires. This drone was an air mine that was to be dropped from a height on the enemy. In real battles, this device did not participate.

In the USSR, the first work on the creation of UAVs began in the 1930s. These were unmanned "air torpedoes", which were supposed to be used where manned bombers could suffer losses.

The authors of the book gave definitions and classifications of existing and future UAVs. They described in detail the take-off and landing characteristics of the UAV, considered options for building and disbanding a group or a swarm of drones. They presented the main directions of ensuring information interaction between drones and control points. They showed variants of terminals of satellite communication systems based on mirror parabolic antennas and phased antenna arrays. Described the avionics of drones and integrated modular architecture. We considered the modern domestic radio engineering base, which can be used in the creation of a new generation of avionics and drone control points.

The publication will be indispensable for specialists in the development and operation of UAVs, for students, graduate students, adjuncts and doctoral students of relevant specialties.

The book was published in the Moscow publishing house "Sam Polygraphist". The reviewers were Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, Honored Worker of Science and Technology of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Feoktistovich Bezyazykny and Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor Eduard Valentinovich Kiselyov.

Authors from RTI Group:
• Boyarov Maxim Evgenievich
• Davydov Alexander Borisovich
• Dyblya Alexander Yurievich
• Lyadova Elena Fedorovna

Gazputin wrote:they have cloned the Austrian/Canadian Rotax engine 912-914  .... something like that
Russian clone
APD-115 - its only an air-cooled flat-4  .... hardly a challenge for people who can build rocket engines
apparently a company called Agat make them

CIAM have also made a 150hp Wankel engine for drones .... to be used from 2024 apparently ... PD150T
(seems Israelis and Iranians have been using wankel engines in drones for years
it suits them well Wankel engines love just sitting in a rev band
and drones .... well they just drone at the same speed .....
much smaller and lighter )

there's also a Russian clone of the 85hp engine used in the Forpost-R - another flat-4 air cooled engine

the issue was never whether they could make the engines
it was always about - recovering the capital investment via decent production volumes - in a commercial sense

but that is all irrelevant re national security  .... and the defence dept's deep pockets

So they can make the engines, but there are still no factories for them?

They don't need thousands and UAVs are easy to make...

UWCA make 2 different UAVs

Forpost is made in their Urals factory
Altius is made in Kazan ...

Kronstadt has a new factory in Dubna
they make Orion UAV
2-3 others under development

Novosibirsk branch of Sukhoi
Sukhoi Su-70

that's your larger surveillance and attack drone factories

there are several different helicopter UAVs - like the VRT-300 and BAS-200

then there all the smaller ones like the Orlan-10 which directs artillery - really prolific

and then Kalashikov makes a few loitering/suicide drones under their Zala brand
eg Lancet

Russia has had drones for many years - Forpost and Orlan
but they have mostly been used to direct artillery fire
as Russia has always had lots and lots of artillery .... just ask Hitler

only recently have they shown interest in using them to attack directly
mostly for use in areas with weak air defence

so you are talking 6 or more UAV factories probably more

article on Rus drones

https://charly015.blogspot.com/2020/09/cuantos-modelos-de-drones-ofrecen-los.html

then you have the lastest fun items like glide bombs ....
it is endless ....

Do the Russians have any domestically produced quadcopter electric drones? They have been very useful in correcting fire on Ukrainian trenches, are tiny and have decent endurance and cameras.


So far, DJI has sanctioned Russia, so they might be in shortage. However I have no idea if Russia has the ability to produce Li-ion batteries for such drones. That's where china leads.

previous post re Oplan
just the thing for those idiots that have trained to use those American 155mm howitzers ..... with no top cover
is it just me but those "dispensers" look remarkably similar in mechanism to the detergent dispensers in dishwashers ?
ie flip open hatches ....

VK-800S
this is a bit odd
but then in a post a while ago I found stuff that said the VK-800S could be redesigned to be easier to build and perform better
in the UEC thread
its actually a really good idea to have UWCA involved in the design phase .... as they have a background in maintenance
so they can steer the design towards easier maintenance - great idea in a huge country

anyway .... seems odd that the military wanted ... think it was 18x Altius before 2023 ?
ok .... build the aircraft and the systems .... wait for the engines

https://en.topwar.ru/196470-nazvany-sroki-pojavlenija-predserijnogo-obrazca-rossijskogo-dvigatelja-vk-800-dlja-samoleta-lms-901-bajkal.html

pilot build March 2023 .... probably late 2023 for service delivery
maybe earlier for a drone with no pilots
doubt any piloted aircraft like an L-410 would get any before 2024

in any case it does appear that they have signed-off on "design frozen"
only changes to be made via testing issues

In the near future, the Russian Armed Forces should receive strategic drones

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that modern complexes with operational unmanned aerial vehicles continue to be supplied to the Russian Army and Navy.

MOSCOW, May 20. /tass/. Strategic air drones should enter service with the Russian army in the near future. This was stated on Friday by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu at a meeting of the board of the military department.

"In the near future, it is expected to deliver strategic drones [to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation]. Their use will save flight personnel and significantly reduce the cost of solving reconnaissance and fire tasks by reducing the consumption of ammunition and the resource of aircraft, " he said.

Shoigu noted that modern complexes with operational unmanned aerial vehicles continue to be supplied to the Russian Army and Navy.

"Unmanned aerial vehicles are actively used by the Armed Forces [of the Russian Federation] to solve a wide range of tasks. Over the past 10 years, the intensity of their flights has increased seven-fold, and the annual flight time has increased 23-fold, " the minister said.

He said that since 2015, unmanned aircraft have been monitoring the situation around the clock in almost the entire territory of Syria and since the beginning of the Syrian operation, more than 58 thousand flights have been performed, while the total flight time exceeded 377 thousand hours.

"During a special military operation in Ukraine, unmanned aerial vehicles conduct aerial reconnaissance and carry out selective pinpoint strikes against enemy targets in dense urban areas, preventing damage to civilian infrastructure and the death of civilians. During the operation, the raid has already amounted to more than 25 thousand hours. The information obtained with the help of drones is transmitted to consumers in real time. This allows the troops to quickly respond to changes in the situation and act as efficiently as possible," the head of the Defense Ministry stressed.

Shoigu also said that the board meeting will consider a draft program for equipping the Aerospace Forces and the Navy with complexes with medium-and long-range unmanned aerial vehicles until 2030.

https://tass.ru/armiya-i-opk/14682023

Hole wrote:

What kind of ballistics computer does the orlan have for dropping these grenades?

It will have a laser range finder built into the optics, and probably has a ballistics computer built in to the home station, where the flight speed and altitude and other information can be used plus the ballistic properties of the munition being dropped to allow reasonably accurate munition drops.

It will be recording the free fall and impact of the munition and so over time it could analyse results and improve accuracy depending upon ground conditions... it wont be dropping from enormous altitudes... 2-3km altitude would be safe from most small arms fire and few MANPADS will get a lock from that range considering the small size and low IR signature of the drone.

During the testing of the system they likely had plenty of time to determine the optimal release parameters at different speeds and altitudes, so depending on the flight speed and altitude an aim point could be projected onto the video image as the drone is flying along... when that cross or circle overlaps the target you send the release signal... you would always want a human in the loop for releasing deadly weapons to ensure it is a genuine target and not friendlies or civilians.

These grenades look like modified 40mm grenades of the new type for use with the new 40mm auto grenade launchers... but with plastic tail fins for stability.

They should pack quite a punch in terms of fragments so hitting someone on the top of their head would actually be less effective than landing beside them because as you can see the fragmentation rings are along the sides of the grenade rather than on the end... so most of the lethal fragments will be heading sideways...