All news

Silver, gold, platinum to be extracted from old Soviet drones prior to recycling

MOSCOW, January 14, /ITAR-TASS/. Russian Defense Ministry is getting ready for recycling of drones that were entered on the tables of equipment of the Armed Forces more than twenty years ago, suggest the documents on development of the Russian Air Force obtained by the Moscow-based Izvestia daily.

A total of nine drones, the combat utilization of which has been deemed inefficient and storage, irrational, will be recycled over a period of three years.

Former Chief Commander of the Air Force, Vladimir Mikhailov, has confirmed that the recycling of outdated drones will be done for the first time ever in Russia.

Over the next three years, Russian factories will be expected to retrieve ferrous and nonferrous metals, including silver, gold, platinum, and platinum group elements from the drones of the Strizh, Reis, Pchela-1, and Krylo families that were put on combat duty in the 1970’s and the 1980’s.

Izvestia quotes an expert at a company, which supplies drones to the Armed Forces today, as saying the technologies of the 1970’s and 1980’s are very different from the current ones. “They are like real jets,” he says.

Apart from the air vehicle as such, a drone includes a whole range of equipment that will be recycles together with the air vehicles and that contains precious metals.