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Russia tries to close MALE UAV gap

9th September 2020 - 12:45 GMT | by Leonid Nersisyan in Yerevan

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Russian manufacturer Kronstadt Group unveiled important developments in domestic UAV technology in late August, during the Army 2020 exhibition near Moscow.

In particular, three platforms appear to show a concerted effort to close the gap with US and other Western MALE systems.

Orion, the lightest and most compact of the three UAVs demonstrated at the exhibition, entered limited service in April 2020 and has even reportedly been in action in Syria. Nikolay Dolzhenkov, General Director of Kronstadt, said that the Russian MoD has already signed a contract for serial-production Orions.

The 8m-long Orion has an MTOW of 1,200kg and

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Author

Leonid Nersisyan

Leonid Nersisyan is a defence analyst and research fellow at APRI Armenia. He is a …

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