Russian reconnaissance drone Altius-U performed its first flight.

Russia’s latest reconnaissance drone Altius-U weighing 6 tonnes has performed its debut flight, the Defense Ministry of Russia said on August 20.

Altius-U during its first flight (Picture source: Russian MoD)

The flight lasted 32 minutes at an altitude of up to 800 meters in a fully automatic mode at one of testing aerodromes. All the drone’s systems operated normally," the ministry said in a statement.

Russia’s Defense Ministry posted the video of the reconnaissance drone’s debut flight in its YouTube page. The video shows the drone speeding up along the runway of a military aerodrome and making its flight. The video footage further demonstrates the drone performing maneuvers in the air with the non-retracted landing gear and making a landing. The drone’s board number is 881.

The Altius-U is the drone’s final conceptual design after the tests of several prototypes, the Defense Ministry said.

"The system is capable of accomplishing a whole range of reconnaissance assignments, employing optical, radio-technical and radar equipment and staying in the air for over 24 hours. The drone weighs about 6 tonnes," the ministry specified.

The Altius-U features a satellite control channel, "which makes the radius of its employment actually unlimited," the statement says.

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