Unmanned scouts

The Russian Defense Ministry has launched a contest to select tactical observation and reconnaissance UAV platforms. Procurement of such vehicles will be part of the ongoing military reform and rearmament program.
In order to compare the systems available on the market, the first stage of a large-scale flight-testing program took place at the military range near Nizhny Novgorod in September. The testing was organized by the Ground Troops, who are in charge of coordinating research and development efforts into unmanned systems with effective ranges of up to 500 km. The current organizational chart of a Ground Troops brigade envisages a fleet of 16 tactical UAVs.
The organizers sent invitations to all Russian companies which design and manufacture UAVs in three categories: close range (up to 25 km), short range (up to 100 km) and medium range (up to 500 km). Of the initial 26 candidates, only 12 companies took part in the practical tests. They presented unmanned systems capable of flying the typical mission proposed by the organizers. In the course of 10 flying days, 22 UAVs performed 56 flights - by day, at night, and in adverse weather. A variety of targets had been set up at the training range at distances varying from 5 to 120 km away; a jamming environment was created for the duration of the flights, and air-defense facilities were operating in the detection mode. The participants were not issued with the flight assignment and digital area map until already at the testing site.
The objective of the flight tests was to evaluate the competing systems’ compliance with the military specifications, the most critical of these being operational stability and effectiveness in intensive enemy fire scenarios. During the first testing phase the focus was exclusively on the reconnaissance functionality: the availability and performance of day- and night-time sensors, their ability to automatically track targets, the attainable resolution for photographic and video imagery, the presence of a real-time datalinking capability, and the system’s ability to support data processing and transmission.
Based on the results of the comparative flight tests, the Defense Ministry short-listed eight UAV systems from different categories. These designs took part in the second stage of testing, which was held at the Alabino training range, near in Moscow in October. The eight systems in question were the ZALA AERO Zala-421-04M Lastochka and Zala-421-08 Strekoza; the Enics Eleron-3 and Eleron-10; the Irkut-10 by Irkut Corporation; the Orlan-3 and Orlan-10 by Special Technology Center; and Navodchik-2 by Izhmash Unmanned Systems. The Kronshtadt company was invited as a separate entrant with its Dozor UAV.
The contestants were to fly several sorties over the range to detect and identified a number of targets. This data should have been submitted to the new tactical command and control system developed by Sozvezdie company.
Denis Evstafyev, chief designer of unmanned reconnaissance systems in Kronshtadt-Tekhnologii company told Russia & CIS Observer that their UAV made several flights with average time of 1 hour. The aircraft took pictures in the designated areas and relayed them to the ground control post in real-time mode. The received images have been combined into orthophotomap and transmitted to the tactical C2 system.
Enics was also happy with its product’s performance in the tests. "We met all the objectives," says director Valery Pobezhimov. "The Eleron-10 flew several sorties; in accordance with the requirements of the tests, we flew it both during the day and at night."
The results of the second stage will be announced shortly. The Defense Ministry will use them to select one baseline UAV design in each category. The three systems will then be brought up to the Defense Ministry’s requirements and may be put into service.