“We are ready to establish a new industry” declaration Belousov speaks at the busy Archipelago-2023 in Novosibirsk.
At the same time, according to the official, the Russian industry now “does not have everything” for the production of full-fledged drones. But to build their prototype “almost the entire line [есть]perhaps, except for the individual components.
“And if we talk about the drones themselves, then it is almost complete,” said Andrey Belousov.
The First Deputy Prime Minister believes that Russian drones are not inferior to foreigners, and in some cases even surpass them.
“I discovered that we have engine manufacturers in demand among foreign partners,” Belousov admitted.
According to preliminary data, 300 billion rubles will be allocated to the national project for the development of unmanned aerial systems for 2024-2026.
“It’s a pretty expensive story,” accepted Belousov “I can say that I cannot give the exact figures yet, but as preliminary information, 48 billion for 2024, 117 billion for 2025 and 148 billion rubles for 2026.”
According to the First Deputy Prime Minister, about 70 companies are already producing unmanned systems in the Russian Federation, 20 of them are large.
Russia plans to produce about 18 thousand large and medium-sized UAVs weighing less than 1 kg, excluding UAVs, in 2024.
The “unpredictable” aspect
Recently, the country’s leadership attaches great importance to the production of UAVs. Russian President Vladimir Putin described the globe as “the most important field of activity” at a meeting with industry representatives in April of this year.
“Now my colleagues and I were just looking, I saw the figure drawn: in the near future, the volume of 500 billion [рублей]- but they immediately agreed with me that this is a very conservative estimate: most likely, if we all – and the state – actively work, then it will be a trillion rubles, this will be a huge volume ”- declaration Minister.
According to the President, behind the future is the unmanned aviation industry, concentrating the latest developments in a number of areas. The head of state believes that the globe can seriously increase the competitiveness of the economy.
“The use of unmanned aerial vehicles is unlimited, there is no such field of activity and economy in which it would be impossible to use unmanned aerial vehicles in practice,” said Putin.
The president said that drones will help the development of the territory of Russia: deliver food, medicine and mail to remote areas, monitor the state of industrial facilities, pipeline systems, power lines.
Armed forces need drones too
“In addition to the development and production of counter-battery systems, the deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles and robotic attack systems to the troops, which show itself well in combat conditions, will continue. At the meeting with the graduates of military universities in June this year, we will accelerate their mass production,” Putin promised.
The head of state believes that drone control courses should be included in educational programs, including in schools.
“I fully support the proposal made by our companies so that children can learn from school how to manage, assemble and design drones. I’m sure that first of all it will attract guys to useful, interesting work, distracting them from things they shouldn’t be doing. ” aforementioned Putin at another meeting on the development of drones.
The sector is planned to be formed in 6.5 years
At the end of June, the government of the Russian Federation approved a strategy for the development of unmanned aircraft for the future until 2030 and until 2035.
“In the next 6.5 years, a new branch of economics should appear in Russia related to the creation and use of civilian drones” says in an article on the government’s website.
The document identifies five areas: demand incentive; development and mass production of systems, creation of large production centers; infrastructure development; education and research.
In parallel with the development of the strategy, a national project is being developed for the development of unmanned aerial systems.
To work connected regions – before October 1, they need to develop their programs for the development of unmanned aerial systems and provide information on the availability of land for the planning of the route network and the necessary infrastructure.