Russia updates UAV inventory

Dec. 5, 2013 by Howard Gethin – FG

Moscow - Russia's defence ministry has signed a deal worth over Rb100 million ($3 million) with Kazan-based Eniks for delivery of 34 short-range surveillance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).

The company will deliver 17 Eleron-ZSV systems, says the company’s general designer Valery Pobezhimov, after a contract was signed with the ministry on 3 December.

“I can’t state the exact value of the deal but it is in excess of 100 million roubles,” he told news outlets.

The UAVs – a modernised variant of earlier Eleron systems – will be delivered by next year, he adds.

Pobezhimov claims the Eleron costs just 20% of the price of similar foreign systems such as the Israel Aerospace Industries Zastava UAVs made under licence in Russia.

The 5.3kg (12lb) Eleron can carry a 1kg imaging payload, with a top speed of 70kt (130km/h) and ceiling of 13,000ft (4,000m), Eniks claims.

Meanwhile, UAE-based Adcom Systems is to deliver its United 40 medium-altitude long-endurance UAV to the Russian defence ministry for trials in February 2014, the company’s chief executive Ali Al-Dhaheri says.

“Regardless of the results of the first tests, further deliveries of the UAV will take place,” he told Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency.

Russia has signed a draft deal with Adcom for purchase of a trial batch of the system, he says.

The 1,500kg MTOW United 40, powered by a single pusher engine, is optimized for battle damage assessment, mission planning, border surveillance and communications relay, Adcom says, and can also be armed with air-to-surface missiles.