A new tiltrotor drone has been created in Russia, designed to relay a signal within a radius of 100 km, specialists from the Obukhov plant (part of the Almaz-Antey concern) told RIA Novosti.

“A prototype of the Nastasya tiltrotor drone has been created, which has the ability to take off and land vertically, like a quadcopter, and at the same time is equipped with an aircraft wing to increase speed and flight range. The main purpose of “Nastasya” is signal relay. The range of the UAV is 100 km,” said a plant representative.

According to the developer, the drone can carry a payload of up to 3 kg for various purposes. The maximum flight speed of the device, equipped with five engines, reaches 100 km/h.

The prototype was presented at the National Exhibition and Forum of Civil Aviation Infrastructure NAIS 2024 taking place in Moscow. Other drones produced at the enterprise will also be presented there.

“There is a whole line of UAVs that are currently produced by the Obukhov plant. They are intended for various purposes, including training drone operators. First of all, the concern's production of drones was due to the need to diversify production, but then life made its own adjustments. Today, Obukhovites produce different types of UAVs - both quadcopters and aircraft-type drones. Some of them will be available at the NAIS exhibition,” said Dmitry Savitsky, deputy general director of the Almaz-Antey concern for products for the air navigation system and dual-use products, in an interview with RIA Novosti.

Domestic analogues

Experts interviewed by RT noted that repeater drones can be used for various tasks: mapping, monitoring of extended objects, such as pipelines, railways and roads. They can also be used for military purposes, in particular for reconnaissance over long distances. Experts recalled that devices similar to those developed by the Obukhov plant were previously presented in Russia.

In November 2023, a drone capable of relaying a signal from the air was presented at the St. Petersburg Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The drone was named "Raven". It can stay in the air for up to 30 minutes (for other similar drones this figure does not exceed 20 minutes) and is capable of carrying 1.5-2 kg of payload. The drone can be used in areas remote from the main telecommunications infrastructure, including for rescue and search operations.

“Our development can be used to solve various problems in complex or inaccessible terrain. "Raven" can quickly increase the wireless coverage area. Then, just as quickly, you can return the drone to the base or move it to another territory where communication is required,” said Anton Savelyev, head of the laboratory of autonomous robotic systems of the St. Petersburg Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

As the founder of the Stratim design bureau explained earlier in an interview with RT, “Raven” can be used for mapping terrain and buildings.

He added that Stratim supplies repeater drones to the North Military District zone, which autonomously ensure the transmission of control signals and the functioning of a video channel for reconnaissance officers with a camera and FPV devices.

  • Autonomous copter "Raven"

  • © "Stratim"

Also in the fall of 2023, tests of the Sparrow complex, which uses the Cloud repeater, were completed in the zone of a special military operation. The drone's flight range reaches 5 km, and its payload is 2.6 kg. At the same time, non-standard frequencies are used to maintain communication between the operator and the UAV.

“This device is extremely useful at the front, as it allows us to maintain control of drones far from the launch point. Thus, the range of their use increases, the likelihood of successful reconnaissance or hitting targets increases,” Andrei Bratenkov, executive director of the Spectr KB, said in an interview with RT.

According to him, the Oblachko repeater is already part of the arsenal of the Russian Armed Forces in the Northern Military District zone.

In September 2023, it became known about a drone for relaying a signal from specialists at the Khabarovsk Radio Engineering Plant. This model was designed to work in special operations conditions. As noted by the mayor of Khabarovsk Sergei Kravchuk, a reconnaissance signal relay UAV and several types of attack copters are being prepared for dispatch to the SVO zone.

  • Products of the Khabarovsk Radio Engineering Plant

  • © Sergey Kravchuk

The Russian military is already successfully using Zala multifunctional unmanned aerial vehicles in the special operation zone. The drones developed by the Kalashnikov concern are equipped with a powerful on-board computer, which allows them to transmit a larger amount of information during flight. Their basic configuration also includes a repeater, which increases the range of use of the complex to more than 100 km.

According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, Russian military personnel use these drones to fly to tactical depths for reconnaissance, search for targets and further adjust the fire of various types of weapons. Also, with the help of Zala, video recording of fire destruction of enemy targets, manpower and equipment is carried out.

“Active development is underway”

The head of the International Training Center for Unmanned Aviation, Maxim Kondratyev, noted that the design of tiltrotor aircraft makes it possible to avoid launching a UAV from a catapult and landing by parachute. And thanks to relay drones, drones with payloads can be used over long distances.

“When controlling unmanned systems and broadcasting a signal in real time, a limitation arises related to the range of the radio horizon. Under ideal conditions, 40-50 km can be achieved at best. The emergence of a repeater drone makes it possible to use drones with a payload (for example, video equipment) at long distances, so to speak, to look beyond the horizon,” Kondratyev explained in a conversation with RT.

Aviation expert Eduard Baghdasaryan, General Director of Aerocon JSC, added that relay drones will be very useful to the Russian military in the area of ​​military operations.

“We are talking about special tasks that are urgently facing our armed forces today. Increasing the range of reconnaissance or attack unmanned aerial vehicles is the purpose of this product. There is such a thing as maximum flight range, and there is a range of action, which is relatively small. Because you need to fly away, come back and work at this distance for some time. It is three to four times less than the maximum flight range,” the analyst said.

According to him, one of the advantages of the SVO was the impulse that influenced the development of domestic developments in the field of unmanned aircraft. “Various companies invest money in development, in the creation of new designs. Very active development is underway. And we are witnessing this technological process,” explained RT’s interlocutor.