Russia to expand drone exports

MOSCOW, June 9 (UPI) -- Russia's Rosoboronexport says it aims to bolster Russia's position in the unmanned aerial systems market by promoting new aircraft.

Among them are the Takhion and Granat-4E tactical surveillance, reconnaissance and intelligence drones.

"For many years, we have been trying to catch up with the world's leading manufacturers of unmanned aircraft systems," said Sergey Goreslavsky, Rosoboronexport's deputy director general. "However, Russian developers have managed to reverse the situation, and today more and more models that are quite competitive with their best foreign counterparts are becoming available.

"We are currently in substantive negotiations with a number of countries on the possible supply of Russian UAS, and there is a growing interest."

Other drones to be promoted are the Orlan-10E, Granat-1ZH, Skat Superkam S-100, Skat Superkam S-640, Eleron-3, Eleron-10, as well as the mBPV-37 and BPV-500 helicopter-type UAS suitable for law enforcement use.

"We note the keen interest of foreign partners in the Orlan-10E, which has excellently proved itself during Russian Air Force operations against ISIS in Syria. We expect that the new unmanned aircraft systems Takhion and Granat-4E, which are actively used by Russia's Armed Forces, will also attract the attention of our partners," he said.