A Russian coordination center for unmanned aviation accelerates drone development
A new coordination center in Russia has been established to streamline the work of enterprises involved in the development, testing, and deployment of flying drones. In a TASS interview, Dmitry Savitsky, the deputy general director of the Almaz-Antey concern and the center’s head, outlined the initiative and its strategic aims.
Savitsky explained that specialists from Almaz-Antey across various disciplines have been brought together to foster faster collaboration and richer knowledge exchange. He described an active research program with draft plans ready for approval and noted that the team is at an early stage. The goal is to unify participants under a single program and deliver meaningful results that go beyond initial milestones, demonstrating real progress over time.
A central function of the center will be to coordinate the design of unmanned aerial systems, drone platforms, and navigation equipment essential for integrating drone activity into general airspace. The work is intended to align with a shared technical policy, ensuring that developments fit within national standards and regulatory frameworks while preserving interoperability as new capabilities appear.
Historically, the United States imposed sanctions on JSC Concern VKO Almaz-Antey, a Rostec subsidiary, due to its role in air defense system development. The creation of the Russian center signals a strategic move to coordinate domestic efforts more efficiently and to advance drone-related technologies within the broader defense-industrial complex. Emphasizing cross-disciplinary collaboration and policy alignment aims to shorten development cycles, reduce duplication, and strengthen the domestic ecosystem around unmanned aviation.
Industry observers view the center as a hub capable of fostering innovation across multiple domains, including flight-control software, sensor fusion, data analytics, and secure communications for unmanned platforms. By coordinating research and development activities, the center intends to speed the transition from laboratory concepts to field-ready solutions while upholding rigorous safety and reliability standards. The initiative also appears to be part of a long-term plan to expand Russia’s capabilities in airspace management for autonomous vehicles and related technologies.
Officials anticipate publishing concrete milestones, performance metrics, and timelines to monitor progress and ensure accountability. The overarching aim is to build a robust, domestically led pipeline for drone development that can meet evolving security needs, support civil and commercial applications, and enhance Russia’s capacity to participate in increasingly complex airspace scenarios on the global stage. The center’s work is expected to influence how unmanned systems are designed, tested, and integrated into everyday use, from industrial inspections to emergency response and beyond. Source attribution: TASS interview with Dmitry Savitsky, deputy general director of the Almaz-Antey concern