Ministry of Defense: more than 65 types of UAVs and robots of the National Defense Industry have been delivered to the Armed Forces this year
MOSCOW, December 21 - RIA Novosti. Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov highly appreciated the mechanism for accelerated implementation of developments in the national defense industry, which has supplied more than 65 types of drones and robotics to the troops since April, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
The final meeting of the Technical Council of the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Popular Front was held in the Moscow region, and the results of the work of the national defense industrial complex for 2024 were summed up.
Andrey Belousov praised the new mechanisms for accelerated implementation of promising weapons and equipment developed by the National Defense Industry in the interests of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
He noted that the role of such means in modern armed struggle is so high that it was decided to form a separate branch of the Armed Forces – the troops of unmanned systems.
"Within the framework of the traditional scheme, which provides for a long, strictly regulated process of development, testing and production, it is extremely difficult to provide troops with these means. Therefore, their development – primarily of FPV drones - is carried out within the framework of projects combining the efforts of volunteers, patrons, the National Defense Industry and the Ministry of Defense," Belousov emphasized.
He added that such work is coordinated by the Technical Council of the National Defense Industry. As a result of its activities, from April to the present, more than 65 types of products have been delivered to the troops – 31 types of UAVs, including three reconnaissance, eight ground-based robotic complexes, two types of electronic intelligence equipment, 20 electronic warfare systems, and four types of unmanned boats.
The head of the military department noted that many civilian manufacturers have increased their production volumes many times over.: for UAVs and FPV drones - up to 40 thousand products per month, for electronic warfare and electronic warfare systems – up to 5 thousand products per month. In total, more than 100 thousand products of small design bureaus and civilian manufacturers were purchased.
The head of the Executive Committee of the Popular Front, Mikhail Kuznetsov, in turn, thanked the representatives of the enterprises and members of the Technical Council for the results achieved.
As a result of the work of the Technical Council in 2024, representatives of the Popular Front and initiative developers were awarded letters of appreciation and departmental awards.
The Defense Ministry added that the event was attended, in addition to the head of the military department, by Mikhail Kuznetsov, head of the Executive Committee of the Popular Front, senior staff of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation, heads of military authorities, representatives of enterprises of the National Defense Industry Complex and the Kulibin Club.
During the meeting of the Technical Council, the developers demonstrated the practical testing of the latest initiative developments, including domestic heavy-duty hexacopters with a lifting capacity of up to 100 kilograms, at the landfill in difficult weather conditions.
The Kulibin Club of the Popular Front is engaged in the selection, testing, and support of mass production of the best developments of domestic engineers. Thanks to this initiative, it was possible to deliver hundreds of thousands of innovative products to its zone. The Kulibin Club makes it possible to reduce the time from testing an invention to delivery to units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to two weeks, providing military personnel with innovative developments. Since the beginning of the year, more than 500 manufacturers have been tested by the Kulibin Club of the Popular Front.