Domestic Choice

Russian aircraft design company Tupolev plans to return to the development of the unmanned aircraft. In December Alexander Bobryshev, Tupolev’s president, announced that one of the company’s priorities for 2010 is participation in the tender for developing a medium range unmanned aerial vehicle, dubbed by the Russian military as BAK SD (Bespilotniy Aviatzionniy Komplex Sredney Dalnosti). "We are taking our stock [of unmanned technologies] now and plan to develop this direction", said Bobryshev.
The tender is to be announced this year by the Defense Ministry that seems to be still interested to upgrade its unmanned capabilities with the domestic design despite the fact it has already purchased a dozen of Israeli-made UAVs, including Bird Eye 400 mini-UAVs and 400 kg Searcher Mk II tactical reconnaissance drone. In 2009 the Russian Armed Force’s chief of armaments Vladimir Popovkin explained that the Israeli aircraft have been purchased to develop the methods of UAV operational use and train personnel. "We don’t say that we buy them and stop all domestic developments in this field", said Popovkin.
Tupolev has a rich experience in UAV design. Since the 1960s the company developed several models of jet powered reconnaissance unmanned aircraft for the Soviet armed forces. The latest achievement was 3,500 kg Tupolev Tu-300 Korshun drone developed under Stroy-F program in the 1990s. According to Leonid Kulikov, Tupolev chief designer on unmanned systems, besides reconnaissance Tu-300 could also perform land strike missions carrying a combat load of almost 1,000 kg. During the factory trials Korshun engaged land-based targets with free falling bombs. Nevertheless at that time the military decided to suspend the development. Two Tu-300 prototypes remained, but the development is unlikely to be restored as the system’s design became obsolete.
Kulikov said that Tupolev’s proposal for BAK SD will not be based on Tu-300 or other Tupolev-designed UAVs, but will be a completely new system. The work on new aircraft has just begun. "BAK SD will have a range of 500-700 km", said Tupolev’s designer, but refused to discuss any other parameters as the final design is yet to be determined. He mentioned that BAK SD should be a multirole platform suitable for both reconnaissance and strike missions. The development of the new UAV can take up to five years while the development cost will be a dozens of billion rubles, said Kulikov.
It looks like Tupolev is the only contender for development of BAK SD at the moment. No other Russian aircraft designers confirmed their participation so far. Representatives from Irkut Corporation that develops a range of tactical UAVs, refused to discuss their possible participation, but mentioned that the company negotiates with the military, although is now focused mainly on civil unmanned products. Irkut’s heaviest unmanned model – Irkut-DA42, unveiled at MAKS 2009 air show in August, will use Diamond Aircraft DA42 twin engine aircraft as a platform to carry 250 kg of payload including optical sensors, radar and photo cameras.
Gennady Trubnikov, chief designer of unmanned system at St Petersburg Transas company, explained that all efforts of the Russian designers have been focused on small-size UAVs so far. The existing models have a payload less than 100 kg and are unable to carry weapons.
Transas’s heaviest UAV is 95-kg Dozor-100 powered with piston engine. It has been tested during the recent Russian-Belarus Zapad-2009 military exercises in September, where it performed two short flights for detection and identification of ships of the opposed enemy in the Baltic Sea. Now Transas prepares to Dozor-100 for 10 hours flight in March to prove the UAV ability to operate at the range of 400 km.
This year Transas also plans to start flight trials of the new Dozor-600 UAV with a take-off weight of 600 kg. Powered by a pusher propeller it will offer mission endurance in excess of 24 hours at a speed of 130-150 km/h. Dozor-600’s payload of 120 kg potentially enables the aircraft to carry weapons, said Trubnikov, but refused to discuss whether Transas will take part in BAK SD tender until it’s officially announced.