Image source: topwar.ru
One of the prototypes of the latest Russian Altius-RU reconnaissance and attack UAV crashed near Kazan this morning. Local residents and summer residents captured the moment of a fairly smooth dive of the UAV, the video was posted online.
It is reported that at 9:10 a.m., as a result of testing an unmanned aerial vehicle, an emergency situation occurred. During the training flight, the device lost control and fell on a suburban area in the Dubki farming Co-op. According to the operational services, there are no casualties on the spot. As a result of the UAV falling on one of the houses, it caught fire, and by now the fire has been eliminated.
Some Russian media have already declared this large-sized UAV "the latest and unparalleled in the world." In fact, the Altius-RU drone, or Altair, began to be developed back in 2011. Ten years later, in 2021, the then Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Sergei Shoigu, announced that the tests of the UAV were formally completed and it would go into production.
However, since then, no more than four or five test samples have been produced. The Altius-RU UAV was not seen in the area of the special military operation. There is only information about the ground tests of the drone, including the practice of bombing ground targets.
The development of the drone was accompanied by corruption scandals and a change of contractor. So, on April 22, 2018, Alexander Gomzin, general director of the Simonov Design Bureau, was arrested and charged with embezzling 900 million rubles allocated for the development of a heavy drone. It was this design bureau, then called Sokol, that in 2011 won the competition of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation to create a UAV with a take-off weight of up to 5 tons, the contract value is one billion rubles.
Further refinement of the drone was carried out by the Ural Civil Aviation Plant (UZGA JSC). However, judging by today's incident with the Altius-RU near Kazan, it has not been brought to mind.
Image source: topwar.ru
The Altius UAV has two turboprop engines. The wingspan is 28.5 meters. The vehicle has a speed of 150-250 km/h, a ceiling of 12 kilometers, and a combat range of up to 3,500 kilometers. The flight duration is 48 hours. The drone can lift loads up to one ton.
UZGA JSC stated that the test flight of the drone was carried out normally. However, unforeseen problems arose during landing, most likely related to the effects of electronic warfare and satellite navigation problems. The drone had to be taken away for a second lap, but landing in inertial mode led to an accident.
Experts note that Russia does not have the expertise to create technologically advanced heavy drones, and it was necessary to cooperate in this area with Turkey, Israel, or China. In the end, the UAV was not really created, and the money for its development was stolen.
