On June 30, 2022, according to the Russian "Kommersant" report, the Russian Kronstadt Group's (Kronstadt) factory in Dubna, Moscow Region, will produce the "Orion" Chassis in three shifts. An all-in-one drone to quickly deploy it into the war in Ukraine. Previously in 2021, the Kronstadt Company built Russia's first professional production plant for mass production of the large-scale unmanned aerial vehicle next to the Dubna Machine Manufacturing Plant. There is no doubt that through this war, Russia has also realized its shortcomings in the field of integrated surveillance and combat drones, and is currently trying to catch up with the advanced level of world powers' integrated surveillance and combat drones.
The "Orion" UAV planned to be produced in three shifts this time is a medium-sized long-endurance integrated surveillance and combat UAV. Entering the new century, old UAVs such as the Tu-123 and Tu-143 (pictured below), which were born during the Cold War, are no longer able to adapt to the new battlefield environment. The electronic equipment of these UAVs is already old and resembles a missile UAV aerodynamic layout also makes the endurance time of these UAVs very low. It was not until the Russia-Georgia War in 2008 that the Russian army realized the significance of advanced UAVs. Therefore, hundreds of millions of dollars were spent to introduce advanced drones such as "Searcher MkII" and "Bird Eye-400" from Israel . These drones became the basis of Russia's new era of domestic drones, which were finally launched in 2017. The domestically produced "Orion" integrated surveillance and combat drone was launched.
The "Orion" UAV was developed by the Russian company Kronstadt. It has a maximum take-off weight of about 1.1 tons, a payload of up to 250 kilograms, a maximum air endurance of 24 hours, and is equipped with an piston engine . The aerodynamic layout is straight The wing design and V-shaped vertical tail are similar to the CH-4 and MQ-1 UAVs, but weaker than the CH-5 and MQ-9 Reaper UAVs. What is currently confusing is that the "Orion" drone does not have the satellite receiving antenna installed on the nose, so there may be major doubts about the remote control capabilities of the "Orion".
In addition, the weapons mounting capability of the "Orion" drone is also questionable. In the early days of the Russo-Ukrainian War, a large number of Russian Aerospace Forces' manned fighter jets were shot down by portable anti-aircraft missiles due to lack of precision-guided munitions. This kind of battle damage shocked the world. According to the promotion, the "Orion" drone can carry a variety of precision-guided weapons , including the 20-kg KAB-20 and 50-kg KAB-50 guided bombs with a variety of seekers, to the 50-kg UPAB -50 glide guided bomb, to the 50kg Kh-50 air-to-surface missile. However, due to the serious lag in the development of guided munitions, the "Orion" did not conduct live-fire tests of the guided bomb until 2018. In addition, the Russian military's ability to develop precision guided munitions is one thing, and whether it has the ability to equip them in large quantities is another. Something happened.
Having the ability to develop guided munitions and whether they can be used in large quantities in war are two different things. At present, the ground weapons of a large number of advanced Russian fighter planes are still iron bombs and rockets
Obviously, one of the lessons of this war is that Russia lacks advanced surveillance equipment. Fight an all-in-one drone. Previously, the installation progress of the "Orion" UAV was very slow. The UAV was still in a testing state until the beginning of 2022. Related news reports: On January 27, 2022, Russian Defense Minister Shoigu inspected the "Orion" inspection and combat unit The first flying prototype of a drone. Moreover, in the early days of the Russo-Ukrainian War, the Russian army put a small batch of "Orion" into the battlefield and was shot down (picture below). It is reported that the Russian army currently has less than 30 "Orion" drones.
Compared with the "Orion" integrated surveillance and attack drone with a low technical level, the Russian army's dual-engine large-scale surveillance and attack drone has made slower progress. In 2017, Russia actually chose to introduce the United 40 ("United"-40) attack drone from the United Arab Emirates (Figure 1 below). You must know that the technology of this drone in the United Arab Emirates also uses , British and French technology, which is equivalent to Russia's acquisition of Used third-hand technology to develop domestic surveillance and combat drones, but this matter quickly went nowhere.
United 40 ("United"-40) attack drone, the unique aerodynamic shape is the biggest feature of this aircraft
Russia then developed the "Altair" twin-engine drone, which uses a turboprop Powerful, the wingspan reaches 30 meters, the maximum ceiling reaches 12,000 meters, and the endurance time reaches an astonishing 48 hours. In addition, the maximum take-off weight of this UAV exceeds 6 tons and can carry a load of more than one ton. This value is four times that of the Orion UAV. However, there are currently only a few Altair UAVs and the process is still long. in testing.
Although the Russian military’s shortcomings in the field of integrated surveillance and combat drones are obviously different from those of powerful countries, the Russian military still finds ways to maximize the effectiveness of existing drones on the battlefield. For example, the drones currently used in large numbers by the Russian army are the "Aileron-3" small drone, the "Cube" suicide drone (Figure 1 below) and the "Sea Eagle"-10 drone. Among them, the "Cube" Suicide drones played an important role in the battle to destroy the Ukrainian army's M777. With the help of the "Sea Eagle"-10, the BM21 "Hail" self-propelled rocket launcher and the old 2S5 and 2S7 self-propelled howitzers can constitute a huge tactical advantage over the cutting-edge self-propelled artillery obtained by the Ukrainian army from NATO countries (below) figure 2).
But although the Russian army's simple "Sea Eagle"-10 drones played an important role in the war as artillery reconnaissance and school firing drones, these drones passed the target information to the target after discovering the target. The artillery unit still spends a lot of time and is prone to missing fighter aircraft. Therefore, if an integrated surveillance and attack drone performs such a mission, it can achieve "discovery and destruction" of the target. Of course, the Russian army has also carried out field modifications on some "Sea Eagle"-10s and installed magazine bins under its wings. Each magazine can accommodate two 30mm grenades . This grenade was originally an AGS-30 grenade. Launcher ammunition. The attack method of the "Hai Diao"-10 drone is also very crude. Its bomb delivery method of horizontal bombing cannot guarantee the hit accuracy at all, and the grenade is not equipped with pneumatic components to improve the bomb delivery accuracy. This simple inspection and attack integration Drones are only used to deal with individual soft targets, and the hit rate depends on luck.
Presumably through this war, the Russian military will pay more and more attention to the equipment of integrated surveillance and attack drones and related precision-guided weapons.
