Kazakhstan trials homemade surveillance UAV
Shagala UAV will ultimately be deployed by the Kazakhstan Armed Forces at platoon to battalion level.
The Kazakh MoD announced on 5 February that field trials are under way of the domestically produced and patented Shagala UAV, developed by researchers at the National Defence University (NUO).
A prototype of the catapult-launched UAV was tested with a secure communications payload and a low temperature-resistant, rechargable power supply developed by NUO scientists.
Shagala has an operational range of 30km with endurance of 2.5h in windspeeds of up to 14m/sec.
‘In the future, we plan that it will be put into service with the troops at platoon to battalion level’ with the Kazakhstan Armed Forces, said Col Kuandyk Akshulakov, head of the NUO.
While Shagala itself is designed to perform reconnaissance missions, the NUO is also evaluating the use of UCAVs — this effort may accelerate after the recent Nagorno-Karabakh conflict exposed the vulnerability of armour to armed UAVs and loitering munitions.
Lt Gen Timur Dandybaev, Deputy Defence Minister, emphasised the need for any indigenous solution to take specific Kazakh tactical and technical requirements into account: ‘I appreciate the desire to provide the troops with domestic developments in the field of UAVs. However, this should not be a blind tracing paper from foreign counterparts.’
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