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Russia’s first rescuer drone passes tests in Arctic

Under the flight program, the drone carried out a series of flights with take-offs and landings on water surfaces in semi-automatic and automatic modes, landing on water to rescue an individual

MOSCOW, November 10. /TASS/. Russia’s first Seadrone ME rescuer unmanned aerial vehicle underwent trials in the Kara Sea in the Arctic, the press office of the Syemka S Vozdukha (Aerial Photography) company told TASS on Wednesday.

"Under the flight program, the drone carried out a series of flights with take-offs and landings on water surfaces in semi-automatic and automatic modes, landing on water to rescue an individual (a dummy supplied with a locator beacon was used). The option of dropping a life jacket to a drowning person and flights with a loudspeaker and a searchlight were also tested. Water samples were also taken with the help of a bathometer," the press office said.

The trials were held jointly with Gazprom Nedra, a subsidiary of the Russian energy giant Gazprom that is drilling two wells in the Kara Sea in the drilling season, it said.

The trials of the Seadrone ME rescuer drone were aimed at testing its operational capacity amid the impact of adverse external environment factors, such as a wind speed of no more than 8 m/s with wind gusts of 15 m/s, an air temperature of minus 5 to 0 degrees Celsius, humidity of 80% to 100% and sea waves of 1 to 2 meters high on average, the press office specified.

The Seadrone ME unmanned aerial vehicle is designed for operation in northern latitudes, which permits its commercial use in the Arctic, in particular, on high seas and amid salt fog.