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Russian hi-tech firm offers advanced reconnaissance drone for export

The Orion drone is capable of conducting air reconnaissance and giving target designation data

© Dmitriy Rogulin/TASS

ZHUKOVSKY (Moscow Region), July 19. /TASS/. Russia’s Kronshtadt hi-tech firm has started to offer its Orion-E unmanned aerial vehicle for export, Kronshtadt CEO Armen Isaakyan said on Wednesday.

"We are today announcing this complex and are already working with our partners in Rosoboronexport [state arms seller] and are beginning to offer it for exports. We expect it to enjoy demand," the chief executive said.

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The Orion drone is capable of conducting air reconnaissance and giving target designation data, making images of terrain and finding enemy communications centers and places of concealed air defense systems.

Over the past few years, Kronshtadt has developed principally new solutions and automation means for drones, Isaakyan said.

The company has mastered composite production and developed software that makes it possible to fully automatize the work of drones’ operators and increase the efficiency of unmanned aerial vehicles’ operation, he said.

The Orion-E has a wing span of 16 meters and a length of 8 meters. It has a maximum takeoff weight of 1 tonne and a maximum payload of 200 kg. Its service ceiling is 7.5 km and a maximum flight endurance of 24 hours with the standard payload. It develops a level flight speed of up to 200 km/hr.

Kronshtadt Group intends to make the Orion export variant a strike drone, the chief executive said.

‘We are working on the complex’s modernization in an outpacing manner. We can’t disclose details but we plan to add these functions to the next version of the drone’s export configuration," the Kronshtadt chief executive said, replying to a question about the Orion’s strike variant.

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