Armata-based Combat Vehicles to be equipped with surveillance drones 51811163

Defence & Security News - UVZ, MAI
 
Armata-based Combat Vehicles to be equipped with surveillance drones
According to the Izvestia newspaper a local media, Russia’s advanced combat vehicles based on the Armata platform will be equipped with surveillance Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), which will be scanning the battlefield for dozens of miles around and will give situationnal awareness to the crew.
     
Russian-made T-14 Armata main battle tank fitted with new detection and acquisition system 640 001The T-14 Armata Main Battle Tank (Photo V. Kuzmin) 
     
The UAV called Pterodactyl, developed by the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI), will be connected to the vehicle through a cable and will be able to operate as long as the vehicle is running. The drone will be equipped with a radar and thermal scope and will have a maximum flight range of 100 meters.

"We are currently carrying out research and development work, and we will hand over the device for tests to the Defense Ministry in a year," Vitaly Poliansky, a research associate at MAI's department of aviation robotic systems, told the media outlet. The drone is expected to move with the same speed as the vehicle, and it will be capable of taking off from the hull of the machine. A tether management system will provide full data protection.

In April, Oleg Sienko, the director of UralVagonZavod, The company manufacturing the Armata platform, had told to RIA Novosti news agency about the possibility of equipping the Armata-based vehicles with surveillance drones.

“It is a necessary element at a tactical level. It is very hard to move forward in the column ‘without eyes,’ that’s why the UAV is provided there and we will be actively introducing it,” Sienko said.

It is not yet known which UAV will be used to fit into the vehicle, but it will certainly be one made in Russia, Sienko said, adding that it is for the Russian Defense Ministry to decide which device to choose as it runs the trials.

“We will install whichever one [the ministry] tells us to. But there will be one for sure,” he said.

The drone is expected to move with the same speed as the vehicle, and it will be capable of taking off from the hull of the machine. A tether management system will provide full data protection.
     
Armata based Combat Vehicles to be equipped with surveillance drones 640-001
The T-15 Armata Infantry Fighting Vehicle (Photo V. Kuzmin) 
     
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