Russian UAV project accidentally revealed

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu recently visited Tatarstan on a ministerial visit. While he was there a model of the Altius UAV was accidentally revealed during his speech. It is a high wing, twin engined design that may be capable of a strike role. Sokol, which is based in Tatarstan won a $33M contract along with Tranzas to develop a 5t long endurance (MALE), along with a 1t UAV known as Inokhodyets or Wanderer. Sokol will be responsible for the design of the aircraft and ground systems, and Tranzas for the control systems and electronics.

Both aircraft are expected to fly next year, with testing to begin in 2015.

Source

Something tells me the whole drone issue won't be nearly as academic and fine to debate as a distant matter if we have Russian or Chinese drones buzzing OUR skies and occasionally putting a missile into something that looks like it needs shot. Hmmm....

I think I liked it better when we were alone in having the cutting edge drone tech. I foresee very busy skies before passenger jets even join the mess. 'Here a drone, there a drone, everywhere a drone drone.....'

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
Something tells me the whole drone issue won't be nearly as academic and fine to debate as a distant matter if we have Russian or Chinese drones buzzing OUR skies and occasionally putting a missile into something that looks like it needs shot. Hmmm....

I think I liked it better when we were alone in having the cutting edge drone tech. I foresee very busy skies before passenger jets even join the mess. 'Here a drone, there a drone, everywhere a drone drone.....'

You bring up a good point that I never considered until now. When other countries have their own drones they can use them to intrude on U.S. airspace undetected. The small drones could be used to spy on U.S. facilities within the U.S. Small drones the size of a hummingbird are already being made,in the near future i can envision drones the size of a dragonfly being used by agents within the U.S. to infiltrate buildings and hangers on U.S. bases to spy on them.
It looks like area 51 and other government secret bases won`t be secret for much longer.

other nations could park a fishing boat off the coast in international waters and launch drones from it, detecting a small stealth technology drone would be almost impossible.

I wonder what kind of fuel these use, most small aircraft use leaded fuel still. Leaded fuel is highly toxic, maybe this could be battled from an environmental stand point... hmm.

Sorry did not mean to stray off course, that said. It is an interesting concept if everyone starts using drones, technology on a global scale will evolve more rapidly than ever before particularly where war fare is concerned. This could be fatal for human kind. Suddenly everyone will know what everyone else really has. If everyone begins using armed drones well that is down right scary. Im going to go look for a large rock to live under.

Thanks OP

Well another problem I see is not the size but the speed they could go, once you get the bugs worked out that is. In other fighting aircraft you have a top speed because of the human flying it can only take so many G's. A UAV the stress is not there, only reaction time. So it's easier to build a UAV that could hit a target be for anything could react or shoot it out of the sky.

reply to post by byGRACE


It depends. If it's a regular prop aircraft, like a Cessna, then it uses Avgas 100, which is 100 octane gas you can use in your car if you mix it. If it's a turboprop, it basically uses a jet engine to turn the prop, and it uses JP8, or whatever their equivalent is.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Doesn't look very stealthy, but also looks like it could be manfacured at a low cost and could carry a nice payload.

Sometimes getting the job done on the cheap is better.

Originally posted by TDawgRex
reply to post by Zaphod58

 

Doesn't look very stealthy, but also looks like it could be manfacured at a low cost and could carry a nice payload.
Sometimes getting the job done on the cheap is better.

Precisely. The country is vast and definitely can use drones for domestic and military survey of the geography.

After reading some comments I can only seem to think, so its okay for US drones to fly over other nations but its not allowed above US airspace?

Drones are man's worst nightmare, its already hard enough not to get caught on tape while walking on the street, having infinite number of drones above our heads. Shrugs Orwell if only you could see.

Someone needs to invent a guided EMP gun lol.

reply to post by Senduko


Hmm the only thing is to operate all these drones we still need man power to operate these drones. I understand we have technology which allows planes to fly and land on themselves but man power is still needed. Drifting off the topic slightly I mentioned this in another thread. If you had 1000 drones at this present time as far as I know you need one operator to operate one drone. That's alot of man power even if you had one operator for say 5 drones that's stil 200 operators you need. Although the drone is unmanned you still need someone looking after it. Maybe I'm wrong but that's the way I see it

Sorry edit: just realised senduko my replied made no sense to your post what I was trying to say is I think it's going to be very hard to have an infinate amount of drones in the sky. Even 1000 I think, whatever country is operating them would struggle to operate all of them at once

On topic: nice post zaph I disagree with some I think the drone looks pretty neat

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A foreign military presence over continental US airspace isn't likely to ever occur, and especially not for purposes of surveillance like a UAV, even ignoring the purely logistical difficulties of doing so.

The reason our drones are so capable in the middle east is because we have complete air superiority. Truth is, in a contested environment (a la early stages of war, the freaking Continental United States), they only survive as long as a SAM operator or pilot will allow them.

reply to post by Pants3204


Aircraft such as the RQ-170, and the follow ons that I've heard about will change that. Eventually it will be possible, but extremely difficult to pull off. There are a couple of interesting aircraft coming that we won't hear about for a long time if ever.