Russia to build unmanned airships for Arctic military patrols

The Russian Military-Industrial Commission on 10 March recommended the development of unmanned airship platforms manufactured by the state-owned company The Dolgoprudny Design Bureau of Automatics (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.

via – IHS Jane’s 360.