Russia unveils new UAV identical to US
According to Defence-blog, Russia has just officially launched a new line of unmanned attack aircraft, Orion, which looks exactly like China's Wing Loong.
This source said that the Orion unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is a product of Russia's Kronshtadt Corporation. According to Defence-blog, the Orion UAV looks very similar to the Wing Loong and the US Air Force's МQ-9 Reaper.
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| Russian Orion UAV. |
According to initial information revealed, the Orion drone is capable of controlling a series of other UAVs and providing target designation data, creating terrain images and finding enemy communication centers and hiding places of air defense systems.
The new Russian drone has a wingspan of 16 meters and a length of 8 meters. It has a maximum take-off weight of 1 ton and a maximum payload of 200 kg. The maximum flight ceiling is 7.5 km and the maximum flight time is 24 hours with a standard payload with an average flight speed of up to 200 km/h.
A complete Orion unmanned aerial vehicle system includes 4 to 6 UAVs, a ground control station, an automatic take-off and landing system, and communication elements. According to plans, in addition to the domestic version, Kronshtadt Group plans to develop an export version of Orion.
"We are working on the modernization of a complex for the development process. We cannot disclose details, but we plan to add many features to the next version of the export configuration of the aircraft," Kronshtadt's leadership said at the Orion launch.
