"Dobrynya" - the killer of Russian unmanned aircraft
Photo by JSC "Obukhov Plant"
The fact that in today's Russian army the situation with reconnaissance and attack UAVs is simply shameful, probably, it is not worth saying. If it weren’t for the urgently bought Iranian drones, the situation would have become fatal. The Iranians really saved the situation, and not only with the help of "Shaheds", but also with controlled drones, which Ukrainians now call "Nelancet".
That is, they know the Russian "Lancets", and perfectly distinguish them from the "Nelancets", which are much more effective. That is, all that the Russian army has is a handful of Orlans, not very effective Lancets and imported drones. Well, what is bought in China and sent by citizens who have taken on supply issues on a voluntary basis.
So, Iran, China and Russia as backup dancers. It is very sad to observe all this, especially knowing that since the days of the Soviet Union, the development of radio-controlled models has been carried out, and has been very successful. More precisely, the principles were successful, the material and technical base failed. The Soviet Ostekhbyuro, with the help of Bekauri, Grokhovsky, Asafov, Mitkevich and many other designers, quite successfully developed teletanks, radio-controlled aircraft and boats.
And after the war, quite decent systems were created, the Americans sometimes really found themselves in the role of catching up.
How it all began
As an example: Tu-123 with the DBR-1 "Hawk" complex.
The complex was made on the basis of the Tu-121, a projectile with a nuclear warhead and a flight range of 4 km. In 000, the Hawk made its first flight, and a total of 1961 complexes were manufactured between 52 and 1964.
Tu-123 could fly at a speed of 2700 km / h (hello, air defense!) At an altitude of 19-22 km, a distance of 3-500 km, according to the programmed photo control of the earth's surface. And - importantly - to return back.
What's in the USA? And in the USA, something similar was created and brought to mind only in 1969. It was a complex consisting of a D-21B unmanned reconnaissance aircraft and an M-21 carrier aircraft, which was created on the basis of the A-12 aircraft, the progenitor of the famous Blackbird SR-71.
D-21B
A-12
The M-12, built in a single copy, was eventually destroyed by the Americans, the D-21B was converted to launch from the B-52. But the operation of the aircraft was also very short: satellites were cheaper than a titanium aircraft. In addition, the D-21B signed its own death warrant on its first sortie to film China's Lop Nor nuclear test site. The failure of the program led to the fact that the UAV did not turn around, but flew further ... to the USSR! And he fell, a little before reaching Baikonur.
The gift was accepted and the Raven reconnaissance complex was created on the basis of the D-21B.
But these are strategic intelligence officers, a separate issue. And if you look lower and easier, where today we have a complete collapse?
The only thing we can talk about is the very strange UAVs "Bumblebee" and "Bee". They were developed in the early eighties of the last century by the Yakovlev Design Bureau.
UAV "Bee"
At the time of their appearance, "Bumblebee" and "Bee" were quite world-class. In general, there are suggestions that the Yakovlev Design Bureau simply pushed off from the American Akila UAV, the dimensions and performance characteristics of the devices were very similar.
UAV "Aquila"
But when the "Bee" was adopted in 1997, it was no longer very relevant, although it performed its duties in Chechnya. According to reviews, the picture was very so-so, but, as they say, pike cancer will also go to the lack of fish.
This year, at the end of November, in the pavilions of VDNKh, the Aeronet-2035 exhibition was held almost unnoticed. More than 130 organizations participated, which demonstrated 170 developments in the field of unmanned aviation.
Our time
Results? Yes, none. This is not the "Army ...", where multimillion-dollar contracts are signed without fail, this is just an exhibition of those who care about the fact that in Russia there is nothing with unmanned aircraft.
Although much of what was shown at the exhibition, you can simply take and run on the conveyor. But this is a separate issue, which will be discussed in more detail below.
In the meantime, it is worth considering the issue in the light of how reconnaissance with UAVs generally works in modern conflict.
The U.S. reconnaissance drones RQ-4 "Global Hawk" work for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
And they have been working for a long time. Departing from the airfield of the Sigonella base in Sicily (Italy), the Hawks have been flying for eight years over the Black Sea and along our borders from Georgia to Belarus.
Russia does not have such machines and is not even expected yet. There have been developments, since 1986, two rivals to the Global Hawk have been developed in the USSR at once: in the Myasishchev Design Bureau, the M-62 Eagle turboprop UAV, and in the Sukhoi Design Bureau, the S-62 Rhombus on turbojet engines. But in the early 1990s, both projects were closed "due to insufficient funding."
UAV M-62 "Eagle"
UAV S-62 "Rhombus"
In our time, the Sokol Design Bureau has developed a very promising device that could become the Russian answer to the Hawk. We are talking about "Altius", which could well become a rival to the MQ-9 "Reaper" and RQ-4 "Global Hawk".
However, the work that has been going on since 2011 cannot see a natural end in any way, and therefore we do not have strategic long-range reconnaissance UAVs.
Since the nineties, various unmanned aerial vehicles have been regularly exhibited at Zhukovsky at MAKS. Dozens of developments. Hundreds. In addition to the "Bee", which saw small-scale production, all projects were not in demand.
The Aeronet-2035 exhibition was held on November 22-27 this year. Showed 170 developments. One can only guess how many of them will not be needed by either the army or the fleet.
By the way, the incomparable Russian Navy is the only fleet in the world (if you do not take fleets like Somalia) among serious countries that do not have unmanned vehicles in service.
But the Americans equipped drones everything that is possible. Even battleships. Yes, the battleships participating in the Second World War, Missouri and Wisconsin, received the RQ-1987 Pioneer UAV back in 2, and moreover, they were simply gorgeously used in the Persian Gulf War in 1990-91. Drones corrected the fire of naval artillery and engaged in confirmation of defeats.
Today, the fleets are being equipped at a very decent pace. The decks of ships are conquered by the S-100 UAV, developed and manufactured by the Austrian company Schiebel with the participation of the German company Diehl BGT Defense.
USA, Italy, Germany, Austria, France, China, India… Mozambique, damn it! More than two dozen countries are already equipping their warships with an Austrian drone.
Russia has assembled 30 S-100s as part of a joint project between OAO Gorizont from Rostov-on-Don and Shibel.
And that's all, more "Horizon Air S-100" will not be produced, because the sanctions.
But in 1993 (!!!) our Ka-37 was shown at MAKS. Unmanned helicopter.
15 years before the advent of the Austrian Kamkopter, we had our own (well, almost our own) unmanned helicopter project. The South Korean company DHi took part in the creation, but South Korea, as a partner, is simpler than Austria and Germany. In 1996, the Ka-37 received a more powerful engine and the name Ka-37S, and again exhibited at MAKS.
And that is all. History ended.
In 2016, the story of Pterodactyl, a drone for tank "Armata". Many media (including us) seriously discussed the capabilities of "Armata" when using "Pterodactyl"making predictions...
Yes, everything looked good: the UAV on two cables, information and power, rises to a height of up to 90 meters and from there surveys the battlefield, points the gun. Moreover, he is not at all afraid of electronic warfare systems. In 2017, the device was supposed to be tested.
Where is Pterodactyl? Approximately in the same place as the "Armata", a little further in the space-time continuum.
And the world does not stand still. The world is moving forward and improving. And now in China in August 2020, the first commercial flight of unmanned aerial vehicles was made. Commercial - it means for the delivery of goods. Yes, the flight lasted one hour. And the distance was not great, but a drone was flying!
UAV Feihong 98 (FH-98), created on the basis of a light multi-purpose aircraft Shifei Y5B, which, in turn, is a licensed copy of the Soviet aircraft An-2. Patriots may pout with pride, but where are our planes like that? FH-98 drags one and a half tons of cargo at a speed of 180 km / h for a distance of up to 1200 km. Can we repeat? I doubt.
But we are worn with the unfortunate "Hunter". They created it for more than 10 years, somehow built two samples, one was taught to fly. In August 2020, the media reported that the S-70 would go into production in 2023. But something tells me that this will not happen for many reasons, the main of which is its complete worthlessness.
The practice of the war in Ukraine has shown that in the case of unsuppressed air defense, conventional aircraft have nothing to catch in the sky, despite the possibility of maneuvering and using traps and other tricks. Shoot down. And a 25-ton iron, which does not know how to do anything from active protection, will be shot down even more so.
However, the S-70 was supposed to be used in tandem with the Su-57. And the presence of the Su-57 in the troops is also not a matter of tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. Plus, there is no data on the cost of the device, even approximately. Most likely, it will be such that it will be so unprofitable to seriously use such a device to perform combat missions that the "Hunter" will be sent to where all our "unparalleled" "Armata", "Coalitions", "Boomerangs", "Kurgans" and other PAK FA and PAK DA. For exhibitions and parades.
"Dobrynya"
Now let's move on to Dobrynya. And to why he is called the killer of domestic unmanned aircraft in the title.
The scandal around "Dobrynya" and "Gorynych" has not yet subsided, on the contrary, more and more new faces are joining it, such as the son of our well-known space specialist Dmitry Rogozin, for example.
The bottom line is that a number of state-owned and not-so-state media such as NTV and Channel 5 misled Russian citizens, that is, they lied, telling that:
It took the specialists of the Almaz-Antey Concern just four months to launch the mass production of quadrocopters practically from scratch. In Russia, they were produced before, but in St. Petersburg they created production exclusively from domestic components - from bolts and cogs to software.
Knowledgeable people immediately figured out that "Dobrynya" is not exactly "Dobrynya", but in general "Nazgul". A character from a completely different story.
The Flight Nazgul5 Evoque is a racing drone with a very low resolution camera. And, most importantly - completely unsuitable for the delivery of any cargo.
But if Comrade Captain said that crocodiles fly...
In general, our army is suffocating from the lack of normal UAVs for the same artillery, from which Russian artillerymen work according to the canons of the First World War. But nobody cares. I don’t know what kind of “geological exploration” can be carried out on a sports drone with a 720p camera. And how to deliver something on a device that does not even have a return system in case of loss of communication.
I am already silent about the unencrypted control signal.
Here you have to huddle in a patriotic hysteria “Well, how do you like it, Elon Musk”, right? But alas, something does not pull.
Alexei Dmitrievich Rogozin stood up for Almaz-Antey, admitting, however, that
Here I agree with Rogozin Jr. This is far from a copy of a Chinese product, more precisely, NOT EVEN a copy. This is a Chinese product with a casing wrapped around it. Let's not talk about the sudden development of the production of electric motors and microcircuits, okay?
All in one call: "Stop lying to us!".
"Dobrynya" is a treacherous and criminal attempt to drank the budget by sucking in the army of a racing drone that is completely unsuitable for military purposes. Another toy for a lot of money.
With regards to Gorynych, most likely, everything is exactly the same: a Chinese hex was bought and a casing and dragon muzzles were simply printed on a 3D printer for it. They are, of course, very important. Perhaps they hide the label "Made in China" or something else equally important.
But what is the main thing here? And most importantly - the price.
Flight Nazgul5 Evoque cost a little more than 7 thousand rubles on December 34th.
True, without a remote control and battery. The RadioMaster TX12 remote control is another 6 thousand rubles, the battery (well, two) - another 6 thousand. The total set comes out at 46 thousand rubles.
Almaz-Antey declares a cost of 130 thousand. Subtract the printing of the casing from here or add to the cost and even round up to 50 thousand. There are branded stickers and all that.
And anyway, it turns out that from each copter Almaz-Antey will have 80 (eighty thousand) rubles.
A thousand copters by the end of the year? 80 x 000 = 1 rubles. Eighty. Million. Rubles. That's really, "study, student." And the prospect of having so many every month on toys that are completely unnecessary for the army.
Where will the fighters go? They'll take it. And yes, they will be grateful. Because such a shitty drone is better than nothing at all.
Benefactors in general.
Now do you understand why these crafts and toys from China will go to the army under the guise of normal equipment? Because they bring not even money - AMOUNT to those who can snatch from the budget.
And therefore, no semi-private design bureaus that want to make the equipment of today or tomorrow will receive a penny for the implementation of their projects. Don't earn money on them. You can only lose on them. But to buy in China, cover up where you need unnecessary and sell as your own - this is always welcome with us.
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