Move to create Russia’s first ‘mass produced’ commercial drone

Moves are under way to create the first mass-scale UAV manufacturing operation in Russia, though details of that effort make it unlikely it will compensate for the worsening shortage of commercial drones in the country, as store-bought craft continue being snapped up and sent off to the war effort in Ukraine.

Economic and business daily Kommersant reported the development this month in the wake of an earlier article explaining why supplies of commercial drones in Russia had fallen low – driving prices up considerably – with retail UAVs being sent to troops and allied separatists in eastern Ukraine. It described the initiative to kick-start the nation’s first successful mass-production operation of smaller aerial craft as seeking to generate homegrown gear to partially make up for vanishing imports from abroad. 

However, that effort is focusing on enterprise UAVs – at least initially – which have also seen their reserves decrease of late. In…