February 2, 2004 at 10:48 am
All the major combat aircraft producing nations (USA, UK, France, Sweden, etc.) are currently developing Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAVs) such as X-45, X-47, Duc, SHARC etc. But how about Russia? Has anyone heard of any Russian UCAV projects? Have they announced plans to create UCAVs, and which design bureaus would be developing them? Tupolev and Lavochin used to be major recce UAV bureaus, but I would expect the fighter bureaus to also be interested of this field.
Also, what are the latests Russian UAVs – ie. unarmed vehicles for reconnaissance and such? What has there been since Tu-243 and Pchela, for example?