Tests of the prototype of the “Lovkiy” drone will be completed in early February 2024, reported the company that developed the device, Hardberry-RusFactor.
“We conducted demonstration flights of the model for the Russian Ministry of Defense. Now the military department is waiting for a full-fledged test model from us for test flights. By the beginning of February we plan to complete tests of the new version of the UAV, during which we will have to confirm for ourselves the characteristics of our drone,” said the head of the enterprise, Alexey German, in a conversation with RIA Novosti.
He recalled that the drone had previously been demonstrated at the Army 2023 forum.
“The Ministry of Defense is interested; they contacted us and asked us to present the drone for testing. Based on the results of our participation in the Army-2023 forum, we received a wish from the Ministry of Defense that the “Dexterous” would not fly using GPS signals or any other satellite systems,” German said.
According to him, the company’s specialists are working on a program that will allow the drone to fly, guided by maps loaded into it, without a satellite signal. Moreover, the program is supposed to be made universal so that it can be used on other Russian drones.
Drone tiltrotor "Dexterous"
RIA News
© RIA Novosti
According to analysts, the requirement for the absence of communication channels with satellite systems may be due to their vulnerability to electronic warfare.
“The communication channel is susceptible to electronic countermeasures. It is impossible to control a drone in electronic warfare conditions,” Vyacheslav Pshikhopov, director of the Research Institute of Robotics and Control Processes of the Southern Federal University, stated in an interview with RT.
A distinctive feature of the “Dexterous” drone is that it is designed according to the tiltrotor design. This design involves the presence of rotary propellers, which allow the UAV to perform vertical takeoff and landing, and the flight itself can be performed in airplane mode.
“Compared to an aircraft-type drone, a tiltrotor has an advantage: it does not need a runway and can take off and land from a standstill. And compared to copters, this design is better in that it increases flight speed, because in cruising modes the tiltrotor functions like an airplane,” explained Vyacheslav Pshikhopov.
According to the developers, the cruising speed of the Lovky is 160 km/h. In this case, the device can accelerate to 200 km/h. The Hardberry-RusFactor company notes that such characteristics exceed the capabilities of similar UAVs that are currently used in the special operation zone. The flight range and data transmission of the tiltrotor drone reaches 50 km, and the maximum altitude is 5 km.
According to the editor-in-chief of the publication “Unmanned Aviation” Denis Fedutinov, such hybrid devices have a number of advantages and can be in demand in the Northeast Military District zone.
“The combination of aircraft characteristics with the ability to hover, as well as vertical takeoff and landing, may be in demand in the military field, including within the framework of the air defense system. For example, such a drone does not require additional devices such as catapults and parachutes to take off or land. This increases deployment speed and application flexibility. As for the “Dexterous” device itself, its qualities can only be judged after trial operation,” said RT’s interlocutor.
Unmanned Hawk and other UAVs
It is worth noting that the start of a special military operation spurred the development of new drones in Russia. Not only large enterprises and design bureaus, but also small companies or groups of enthusiasts have intensified their efforts in this area.
Some of these devices are already used on a regular basis at the front or are being tested. Among them are the drones “Ghoul”, “Hello”, “Hortensia 10”, “Veles”, “Gadfly”, “Boomerang” and VT-40 (“Vladlen Tatarsky”). A large number of devices are at the development or testing stage.
Batch of FPV drones “Ghoul” for the Russian Armed Forces
© Vladimir Tkachuk
Thus, the Unmanned Vehicles company last year presented a prototype of the K-5 jet FPV kamikaze drone. The device is an aircraft-type UAV. It is equipped with artificial intelligence and computer vision to recognize heat signatures and visual patterns. The turbojet power plant can reach a cruising speed of up to 200 km/h and a maximum speed of up to 400 km/h. The stated range of the device is 90 km.
In turn, the Kotlin-Novator enterprise presented the Veter and X-89 drones at the Army-2023 forum. “Veter” is a quadcopter capable of carrying a payload of up to 1 kg. It is intended primarily for reconnaissance, but can also be used for combat missions. The X-89 is a much larger model, capable of lifting up to 12 kg of load into the air and flying over a distance of up to 20 km.
“The main advantage of both drones presented is the possibility of their use in electronic warfare environments. These drones are equipped with multi-protected communication channels, and also have organized algorithms for autonomous navigation using technical vision and artificial intelligence methods,” Evgeniy Falkov, deputy chief designer for unmanned systems of the Kotlin-Novator company, told the Zvezda TV channel.
Specialists from the Stratim design bureau decided to create a cheaper analogue of the kamikaze drone “Geranium”. The company's development was called "Hawk". These drones will be equipped with internal combustion engines that allow them to reach speeds of about 300 km/h. It is also possible to produce a version with a jet engine - in this case, the flight speed will be at the level of 700 km/h. The UAV is designed according to the “flying wing” design with a high-explosive warhead. The drone will be able to hit targets at a distance of up to 350 km with a payload weight of 16 kg.
In addition to destroying enemy targets, the drone can also be used as a decoy to distract enemy air defenses. The low cost of the product will be achieved through the use of exclusively “civilian components” in its design, explained the Stratim company.
Model of the strike drone "Yastreb"
© "Stratim"
Another interesting development of Russian specialists is the Aqua-22 modular quadcopter. This is a joint project of the volunteer organization “Inventors for the Front” and the Era technopolis.
“Aqua-22” is equipped with a video camera with a domestic board for working with artificial intelligence, which allows autonomous recognition of enemy equipment, manpower and other objects. The maximum payload of the device is 4 kg, operating time is 60 minutes, flight range is up to 30 km.
According to the developers, agreements have already been reached to conduct full-scale tests of Aqua-22 together with the Main Directorate for Innovative Development of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
"Age of Drone Wars"
According to analysts, there is now a kind of boom in the development of drones in Russia.
“A huge number of private companies are starting to develop their own devices. And this is not to mention FPV drones, which almost all aircraft modeling circles are now beginning to collect. And this is very good. There are no extra ideas, just as there are no extra hands. We have entered the era of drone warfare, and the more of them and the more modern they are, the more we will be ahead of the enemy,” military expert Andrei Klintsevich said in a conversation with RT.
Denis Fedutinov shares a similar opinion.
“Over the past two years, there have been many more different drone manufacturers than there were before the start of the CBO. A significant part of their developments will be eliminated in the future due to various circumstances - insufficient technical characteristics, unsatisfactory performance properties and other reasons. At the same time, the abundance of developments in the field of UAVs and the growing number of teams working on this topic provide competition and significantly greater choice for customers, which serves as the basis for the future development of the industry,” the specialist concluded.