More Orlan-10 drones for Russian army in May.

Russian Defense Ministry will receive 40 Orlan-10 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in May of this year, according to the official Vkontakte page of the government entity. "In St Petersburg technical acceptance began of Orlan-10 unmanned aerial vehicles. Under the current state defense order the manufacturer will hand over in May 40 aerial systems to the Russian Defense Ministry’s military units," the report says.

Orlan-10 UAV (Picture source: Army Recognition)

The Orlan-10 is an UAV reported to be produced for the Russian government at the Special Technological Centre of Saint-Petersburg. Reportedly the price of one drone is between US$87,000 and US$120,000.

The machine is usually used in a group of two or three, the first one used for reconnaissance from a height of 1-1.5 km, the second one for electronic warfare, and the third one as a transponder that transmits intelligence information to the control center. More than 1,000 Orlan-10's have been produced so far, with 11 different variants. The 10-kg vehicle is fitted with electronic countermeasures equipment. Also, Orlan-10 can set jamming systems and maintain cellular communications suppression hardware.

The drone can operate in 3G and 4G standard networks and distinguish between friendly or hostile transmitters. Orlan-10 can transmit a video signal over a distance of up to 120 km and remain in flight for more than 10 hours.

Other technical characteristics are as follows: take-off weight – 15 kg; payload weight – 6 kg; gasoline engine (95 octane); launched by folding catapult; landing via parachute recovery; airspeed of 90–150 km/h; the maximum flight duration is 16 hours; the maximum complex range of application is up to 140 km from the ground control station (up to 600 km off-line); the maximum operation altitude above sea level is 5,000 m; the maximum wind speed at the start is 10 m/s; the operating temperature range near the ground is from −30 to +40 °C.