Saturday, March 15, 2014

Russia Wants Unmanned Boondoggle, ahem, Airship for Arctic Monitoring

The Russian Military-Industrial Commission on 10 March recommended the development of unmanned airship platforms manufactured by the state-owned company DKBA for the surveillance and monitoring of defence installations and movements in the Arctic.

Deployments should start in 2016, with platforms equipped with thermal imaging, electro-optical, laser, direction finding and video systems, according to local state-owned media reports.

The report was presented at an Economic Forum in Krasnoyarsk, in central Siberia: a centre for the development of hi-tech defence equipment that contains the 'closed city' of Zheleznogorsk, previously known as Krasnoyarsk-26.

The latest airship made by DKBA is reported to be able to carry 200 kg of equipment and to patrol at an altitude of more than 30,000 ft.

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