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In 2011, the Russian military department signed a contract with the Kronstadt company for the development of a medium—altitude unmanned aerial vehicle with a long flight duration (according to the Western classification - MALE, Medium Altitude, Long Endurance). As a result of the experimental design work with the Pacer cipher, the Orion UAV was created. The export version of the drone is called "Orion-E", it is supplied to the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) under the name "Pacer".
In December 2020, then-Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the first "Pacers" began to enter the Russian troops.
Orion has passed combat tests in Syria, conducting reconnaissance and striking at radical Islamists. The device, which visited the Syrian Arab Republic and was demonstrated on the air of the Rossiya 1 TV channel, made almost 40 reconnaissance and strike sorties. The Syrian experience of using a drone was confirmed by the Ministry of Defense.
Ground control point from the Inokhodets reconnaissance and strike complex (Orion-E)
Image source: © Viktor Bodrov/ TASS
The device with a take—off weight of over 1 ton is capable of carrying up to four guided missiles - a total of 250 kg of combat load. The cruising speed of the Orion can reach 200 km / h, the drone climbs to a height of 7.5 km and stays in the air for up to a day.
Denis Fedutinov, an expert in the field of unmanned systems, head of the New Technologies information and analytical center, noted in an interview with TASS that Orion is close in size to such devices as the American-made MQ-9B Predator and the Israeli Hermes 900. "Like the aforementioned American UAV, the Pacer can carry It carries not only an intelligence target load, including an optoelectronic surveillance system, as well as an optional radar, and an electronic reconnaissance system, but also aviation weapons," he shared his opinion.
Nikolai Dolzhenkov, General Designer of Kronstadt JSC, said in an interview with TASS that Russia had almost caught up with competitors in the production of small-sized ammunition for drones. According to Dolzhenkov, the Orion reconnaissance and strike UAV has adjustable aerial bombs, including gliding ones, as well as guided missiles.
In 2020, Kronstadt demonstrated several ammunition intended for Orion at the Army Forum. Among them, the X-50 guided missile with a warhead weight of up to 20 kg (manufacturer — Tactical Missile Armament Corporation), the FAB-50 aerial bomb and the UPAB-50 guided gliding aerial bomb equipped with a warhead from the Grad multiple launch rocket system projectile weighing 37 kg were shown. The FAB-50 was presented with heads for guidance on tele- and thermal imaging cameras, laser beam.
"Pacer" rides on a special operation
The first report on the use of the Pacer in a special military operation appeared in March 2022, less than a month after the start of its operation. The drone struck Ukrainian armored vehicles and fortifications. During 2023, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation twice reported on the combat operation of the aircraft: in the first episode, it destroyed the enemy's battalion command and observation post with guided aviation ammunition, in the second, it reconnoitered and illuminated the AFU ammunition depot with a laser, and hit it with a correctable artillery shell "Krasnopol" fired by Russian gunners.
Optical-electronic station of the Pacer UAV (Orion-E)
Image source: © Viktor Bodrov/ TASS
However, since September 2024, the military department has already published nine spectacular videos, in the comments to which it is told how the strike UAV "Pacer" smashes the enemy in the border areas of the Kursk region, as well as the Sumy region. The calculations of the "Pacers" detect and destroy tanks, armored combat vehicles, artillery guns (self-propelled and camouflaged towed), temporary enemy deployment points with sniper missile strikes.
Niche MALE
"Even before the conflict [in Ukraine] began, it was clear that the use of such large, noticeable, low—speed, non-maneuverable UAVs in conflicts of such intensity with an enemy at a close level of technical equipment had no prospects," Denis Fedutinov shared his opinion. "Any flight of such a device in such conditions is a one—way flight with a high probability."
The expert recalled that Kiev often used the widely advertised Bayraktar TB2 MALE class reconnaissance and strike UAVs of Turkish production in the initial stages of hostilities, despite the fact that Russian anti-aircraft gunners regularly shot them down. Baykar company (manufacturer of Bayraktar) was even going to build a factory for the production of drones in Ukraine.
Bayraktar TB2 UAV
Image source: © AP Photo/ Efrem Lukatsky
"It seemed that there was some kind of irrational belief in these new technical systems for the Ukrainian military, similar to a pseudo-religious cult," Fedutinov said. — Maybe the successes in the use of these drones in Nagorno-Karabakh and Syria, skillfully presented by Baykar's marketers, made it possible to create a sect of such convinced "supporters of Bayraktar witnesses" in Ukraine. Or maybe someone's financial interests were present there. Anyway, any rational approach in their use by the enemy appeared only when the overwhelming number of drones available in Ukraine were shot down."
During the military conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020, Azerbaijani forces widely used drones of various classes, including Bayraktar TB2. Spectacular videos with high-precision hitting of various targets of the Armenian side were distributed on social networks and widely discussed. "The war in Karabakh has become an excellent PR pretext for Turkey to explain to the world that now drones, in this case its own cars, decide the course of battles, and the era of autonomy and apparent non-participation in wars has definitely come," Kirill Zharov, a TASS columnist, expressed the opinion.
"I think there were several main factors in Azerbaijan's successful use of UAV systems," Fedutinov told TASS. — First of all, it's suddenness. The political authorities of Armenia were probably not ready for such a development. Secondly, the intensity of use. <...> Bayraktars were just one of many modern weapons systems and military equipment that Azerbaijan then used in combat operations. In total, this had, in addition to purely military, also a strong moral and psychological impact."
In the spring of 2023, the commander of the air defense forces-PRO — deputy head of the Russian Aerospace Forces, Lieutenant General Andrey Demin, reported that over 100 Bayraktar TB drones were destroyed during a special operation. The problems with the use of Turkish devices were also recognized by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
There are no barriers for the "Pacer"
"I believe that the surge in the increase in the intensity of the use of Pacers [in the SVO zone] is due to a combination of two main factors,— Denis Fedutinov believes. — Firstly, it is a decrease in the capabilities of enemy air defense systems in the areas where these UAVs are involved. Yes, of course, in the case of some high-priority targets of this kind, unmanned aerial vehicles can be sent to an area with active air defense, despite the risks. But this is rather an exception. The rule is that protracted conflicts like the Ukrainian one force us to plan actions to a large extent based on the need for rational management of resources. Secondly, it is an increase in the number of unmanned systems supplied to the troops." The expert suggested that at present the Kronstadt company has managed to increase the pace of production of the Pacer.
Since the summer of this year, the Russian Defense Ministry has become more likely to report the destruction of American Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems (SAMs) and the interception of their missiles, which could threaten large Russian drones. Experts believe this is due to a significant improvement in the capabilities of the Russian army's reconnaissance and strike capabilities. Another reason is the forced transfer of air defense systems closer to the line of engagement in order to protect themselves from aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces — carriers of planning bombs. Here, American complexes become prey to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
In the summer of 2022, Alexey Belykh, Deputy General Director of Kronstadt JSC, announced that the company's new plant, located in Dubna near Moscow, was switching to work in three shifts. The company is located next to the Dubna Machine-Building Plant, which became the property of Kronstadt in 2021. Together, they form an Unmanned Aviation Center engaged in the production of UAVs and ground control stations.
"Those frequent episodes of the use of Pacers that we have been observing lately, in my opinion, are explained by a combination of these points. Individually, each of them would not have led to a noticeable increase in the intensity of their use," concluded Fedutinov.
Victor Bodrov
