The new Russian strike unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) "Sirius" will perform its first flight in May this year. On January 27, Sergey Bogatikov, CEO of the Kronstadt developer company, reported this to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu during an inspection of the first specialized plant for the production of large-sized UAVs built in Dubna.
"The release of the RCD has been fully completed. Now the production of flight samples is underway. We are making our first flight in May of this year. We are completing flight tests at the end of this year," Bogatikov reported to the minister.
According to him, the new complexes will be produced entirely at the new plant.
"Now, in parallel with the production of prototypes at the pilot production, the preparation of serial production is already underway," he added.
"Sirius" (ROC - "Pacer-RU") is a further development of the Orion drones, has two engines and an increased take-off weight.
"Last year, three new state contracts were signed for the preliminary design of three topics. These are Helios-RLD, Thunder and Lightning," Bogatikov reported to Shoigu.
The first flight of the Helios-RLD radar patrol unmanned aerial vehicle, produced in Kronstadt, is scheduled for 2024, Bogatikov noted. According to him, a preliminary design is currently underway for Helios-RLD.
"Our task this year is to hand over the preliminary design. We are ready to fully release the RKD (working design documentation) next year, start production preparation and ensure the first flight of this aircraft in 2024," the director of the enterprise added.
Bogatikov pointed out that a similar situation has developed with the high-speed unmanned aerial vehicle "Thunder".
"This is the concept of a faithful wingman, he provides a breakthrough in the first place of air echeloned defense. We are ready to carry out work on it in 2024," he explained.
As the commander-in-chief of the Aerospace Forces Sergey Surovikin reported to Shoigu, serial deliveries of Sirius drones will begin to the troops from 2023.
"The first serial delivery of this aircraft "Inokhodets-RU" is 2023," Surovikin said.
The range of the new device is 3 thousand km.
The new production of drones in Dubna was also visited by the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov and the Governor of the Moscow Region Andrey Vorobyov.
At the beginning of 2021, Russia had the only strike UAV officially adopted into service— the Orion-E. The first set of several "Pacers" (formerly known as "Orion") entered the army in the same year.
Military analyst Vladislav Shurygin, in an interview with Izvestia, said that not only heavy combat drones will appear in the Russian troops, but also a huge number of small devices for working on the front line in the near rear, capable of spot-eliminating military equipment and even individual fighters.
