Russian designers managed to create a unique unmanned aerial vehicle for long-range radar detection and control. The drone is capable of patrolling the airspace and performing the functions of a full-fledged AWACS aircraft.
"This is not only an intelligence apparatus and not so much an intelligence apparatus, this is a fundamentally new direction for our country in the development of large-scale unmanned complexes, this is a radar patrol and guidance aircraft, an analogue of the A-50 and promising aircraft of this direction," Nikolai Dolzhenkov, chief designer of the Kronstadt company, said on the air of the Zvezda TV channel.
According to him, the unmanned complex has the ability to provide radar coverage in a given area and detect any aerial targets, including low-flying ones. The advantages of the AWACS drone include the fact that it will be difficult to track the device to enemy radars due to the relatively small size of the drone, as well as due to the use of stealth technologies.
It should be noted that work on the creation of an AWACS drone was carried out at the Yakovlev Design Bureau under the leadership of Nikolai Dolzhenkov back in the early 1990s. In addition, military drones can be used as telecommunication repeaters for ships traveling along the Northern Sea Route. Drones, replacing each other, will be able to be in the air around the clock throughout the year, that is, communication in the Arctic will be constant and stable.
Nikolay Grishchenko
