Aerospace Force Commander-in-Chief Colonel-General Sergei Surovikin said today that the Russian troops will start receiving medium-and long-range reconnaissance/strike drones as from 2021.
Talkting with the Defence Ministry’s Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, Surovikin said that "developing medium-and long-range reconnaissance/attack unmanned aerial vehicles is a major area of work."
Adding that "the effort to outfit drone units with medium-and long-range systems is planned from 2021." In this effort, the focus is made on integrating unmanned aerial vehicles into the existing and future reconnaissance/strike systems of the Russian Armed Forces and jointly employing them in aircraft combat formations, the general said.
The first serial-produced model of a medium-range unmanned aerial system was delivered after the completion of its trials to a training centre for preparing instructors, he said.
