MOSCOW, July 3. /TASS/. The Russian troops will start receiving medium-and long-range reconnaissance/strike drones from 2021, Aerospace Force Commander-in-Chief Colonel-General Sergei Surovikin said on Friday.

"Developing medium-and long-range reconnaissance/attack unmanned aerial vehicles is a major area of work," the Aerospace Force commander-in-chief said in an interview with the Defense Ministry’s Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper.

"The effort to outfit drone units with medium-and long-range systems is planned from 2021," he said.

In this effort, the focus is made on integrating unmanned aerial vehicles into the existing and future reconnaissance/strike systems of the Russian Armed Forces and jointly employing them in aircraft combat formations, the general said.

The first serial-produced model of a medium-range unmanned aerial system was delivered after the completion of its trials to a training center for preparing instructors, he said.