BAKU, October 1. /TASS/. Russia’s latest high-speed Supercam S180 reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is continuously upgraded based on experience gained in the special military operation in Ukraine, Spokeswoman for the Unmanned Systems Group Yekaterina Zgirovskaya told TASS.

"The special military operation realities require continuous modernization. In such rapidly evolving circumstances, it’s impossible to build a drone once and fly it for four years: the situation changes at an incredible pace, requiring ever-new solutions and the implementation of new ideas. We constantly receive requests from unmanned systems troops and other units regarding what they would like to add or improve in the drones. The software requires constant updates as a minimum," Zgirovskaya stated during the ADEX 2026 International Defense Exhibition in Baku.

According to her, this is due to the constantly changing situation in the special military operation zone. "This doesn’t mean that the equipment we’ve developed is not efficient, it means that the enemy is always on the alert and quickly finds ways to counter it. That’s why we need to vary and adapt our approaches to solving the same task, as new ‘unknowns’ keep emerging." This is how the Supercam S350 was developed, until it became clear that there were missions that could no longer be carried out with maximum efficiency using it and its versions. We found a solution - we created the Supercam S180, while the S350 is being repurposed for other functions, such as data relay," said Zgirovskaya.

She emphasized that the S180, not the S350, is now being used in high risk areas. "But its development didn’t stop at creation, and it is getting upgraded, because on the front lines, new scenarios arise almost every day, and this provides an excellent opportunity to verify the correctness of various solutions and receive direct recommendations ‘from the field’ on what to improve and what to add - the main thing is to listen," the Unmanned Systems Group representative stressed.

The ADEX 2026 exhibition is taking place from September 30 to October 2.