Russian Armed Forces to acquire new drones (domestic products) in 2010 - Popovkin

Russian Armed Forces to acquire new drones in 2010 - Popovkin

ISTANBUL, April 28 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Armed Forces are to be equipped with new domestically-produced drones in 2010, a deputy Russian defense minister responsible for military procurements said Tuesday.

"Russian drones not inferior to foreign varieties will appear in a year, no earlier," General of the Army Vladimir Popovkin said at the IDEF 2009 defense industry exhibition in Istanbul.

The issue of insufficient modern weaponry, including drones, in the Russian military came to the fore in August 2008, when Russia and Georgia fought a five-day war after Tbilisi launched an offensive of its former republic of South Ossetia in an attempt to bring it back under central control.

en.rian.ru...

- I was damn right again... Few weeks ago Russia decided to buy Israeli drones, which caused debate also here on ATS. I assumed then that those are only to buy, to make their own models soon... And I was right!

- Russia are making their owns soon - with Israel cooperation. (not mentioned in article, but do your own calculations...)

According to the article, Russia is only buying Israel's drones as a stand-in until they have their own.

I don't think drones are something that Russia would have the slightest trouble designing and building on their own. It's just something that they dropped the ball on as far as seeing an actual need for it. After the Georgia war, that ball was picked up again.