Russian military develops taste for UAVs

The Russian Defense Ministry in the past several years has intensified the procurement and operation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Several types of such vehicles, mostly mini-UAVs, have successfully passed the ministry’s tests and are now being delivered to troops.

The Russian military is buying more Eleron-3SV unmanned systems. In 2013 it was reported that around 17 such systems, with a total of 34 UAVs, had been ordered. This year’s order is for more than 100 vehicles. The manufacturer says that as of 2011, over 200 Eleron family UAVs had been delivered to the Russian security agencies.

The Defense Ministry is also actively procuring the similarly sized Israeli IAI Bird Eye 400 UAV, whose locally assembled version is known as Zastava. It was originally reported that around 30 such systems, each with two UAVs, would be assembled in Russia. The size of the order has since doubled.

The lion’s share of small-sized UAVs being procured by the Russian military represents the Orlan-10 system. The manufacturer is estimated to have delivered over 1,000 such vehicles to the Defense Ministry. In 2015, the combined flying time accumulated by the Orlan family UAVs had stood at several tens of thousands of hours.