Thanks a lot for telling me the wrong defense journal. It’s International Defense Review, not Defense Weekly, you dope.:)
Date Posted: 12-Mar-2004
INTERNATIONAL DEFENSE REVIEW – APRIL 01, 2004
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Russian modernized tactical UAV systems enter acceptance testing
Piotr Butowski
Russia’s modernized Kulon (Moscow)-built Stroy-PD reconnaissance system that employs the Pchela-1K unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has entered acceptance testing at the Russian Air Force evaluation center in Akhtubinsk. Completion of the tests is expected by mid-2004.
The upgraded Pchela-1K (‘K’ for ‘Kruglosutochnyi’ – round-the-clock) is equipped with a low-light-level TV camera on a gyrostabilized platform; the present series version Pchela-1T has a daylight TV camera only. Some changes have been introduced to the airframe and engine in order to improve Pchela’s qualities in mountainous regions (such as the Caucasus, the region that includes the troubled province of Chechnya).
Pchela-1K’s wingspan is slightly increased and the wingtips are straight rather than bent down as on the 1T variant. The vehicle’s maneuverability has been improved by replacing the cruciform control planes with ring-shaped ones. Maximum operating altitude of the engine has been increased to 13,000ft (4,000m).
The Stroy-PD ground control station has also been updated, including the insertion of Baget computers (commonly used in the present generation of Russian military equipment).
The vehicle platform for Stroy-PD is now no longer the small-size BRT-D tracked armored personnel carrier, used previously to allow employment by air-landed assault forces. The upgraded system is installed on more comfortable GAZ-66 or Ural-4320 wheeled army vehicles, which would have better performance in rough terrain.
The Pchela can fly reconnaissance missions out to 60km and usually operates at altitudes between 300-3,000ft. Its core mission is to provide target indication and fire control for artillery. A live firing demonstration of a Smerch multiple-launch rocket system, controlled by Pchela-1T, was staged during the Ural Arms exhibition in Nizhnyi Tagil in July 2002. The Stroy-P system was used in combat for the first time during the Chechnya conflict in April-May 1995. Five Pchela UAVs made 10 sorties (including eight under combat conditions) logging a total flight time of seven hours and 25 minutes. The UAVs, supporting operations of the 106th Regiment of Marines, were used to indicate targets for rocket artillery and Mi-24 helicopters. The data obtained by Pchelas “could not be obtained by other means”, military sources said. Nevertheless, the Pchela operations in Chechnya had an experimental character.
Three versions of Pchela have been built and approved before the new modernized Pchela-1K version: Pchela-1T with daylight TV camera, Pchela 1I with the Elf-1M linear infrared (IR) scanner, and the Pchela-1VM aerial target. Next in the development stage are the Pchela-1P with communications jammer, a signals intelligence variant and a version with a laser target illuminator.
The Russian armed forces have an estimated requirement for 10 Stroy systems with 100-120 Pchela UAVs of various versions.
A first series of 36 Pchela-1Ts for three Stroy-P systems was produced by the Smolensk aircraft factory in 1991-92. In 1993, one system with 12 Pchela-1Ts was delivered to North Korea even before deliveries to the Russian armed forces had started – Stroy-P with Pchela-1T was officially commissioned by the Russian armed forces on 16 June 1997.
Production resumed only in 2002, when six new vehicles were made and a further four came back into service after major repairs. Due to the small demand, the vehicles were made by Yakovlev’s test workshop in Moscow; only a few structural elements were delivered from Smolensk. Purchase of the modernized Stroy-PD system with Pchela-1K vehicles by the Russian armed forces is planned for 2005. IDR understands that the cost of a single system with 10 flying vehicles amounts to US$5 million to US$5.5 million.
· In the meantime, tests of the Osa small reconnaissance UAV are also nearing completion. This vehicle weighs only 25kg and can fly for 2.5 hours with a cruising speed of 120km/h at altitudes between 150-8,200ft. The Osa design is a canard configuration with delta wings and twin tailfins. The vehicle is made of wood and plastic, is piston-engine powered and has a twin-bladed propeller. Its reconnaissance payload consists of a wide-angle TV camera or IR sensor, an NBC dosimeter or a gas analyzer.
The Osa is a part of Kulon’s Stroy-PB reconnaissance system (‘B’ for ‘Blizhniy’ – short-range), a variant of Stroy-P. Stroy-PB operates two Osa aerial vehicles, which can be controlled out to a distance of approximately 20km, rather than the 60km that is possible with the larger Pchela UAV.
Stroy-PB is autonomous and mobile. Its control and information-processing post is installed on GAZ-66 or Ural-4320 military trucks, and the Osa UAV launcher is mounted on the trailer. Deployment time is 20 minutes and the system is operated by four personnel. The basic version of Osa takes off from a mechanical launcher and lands with use of a parachute, but according to Kulon, a version that is capable of aircraft-style take-off and landing is possible.
The Stroy-PB system with the Osa UAV is included as a priority in the Russian federal armament program for 2002-10.
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