Adventures of the Russian unmanned aerial vehicle "Altius"
Unmanned aerial vehicle "Altius-U" No. 881 in the first flight on August 20, 2019. This is probably a repainted copy of 03, possibly after a slight modernization after the transfer of the project to UZGA.
On June 19, 2020, Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Alexei Krivoruchko visited the local branch of the Ural Institute of Civil Aviation (UZGA) in Kazan. Regardless of its civilian name, UZGA, whose headquarters is located in Yekaterinburg, carries out numerous orders for the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. Among other things, the plant assembles unmanned aerial vehicles (BAL) "Forpost" (outpost), that is, the Israeli IAI Searcher Mk II, which are the largest and most advanced unmanned aerial vehicles available to the Russian armed forces.
The purpose of Krivoruchko's visit to the headquarters of the UZCA in Kazan was to assess the progress of the implementation of the HALE program (high-altitude long-duration flight) of the Altius large unmanned aerial vehicle commissioned by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. At the airport, he was shown a test sample "Altius-U" with the number 881, in front of which weapons were laid out; A few seconds into the TV report was the first presentation of weapons for Altius. There were two bombs in front of the plane; another such bomb hung under the wing of the aircraft. The bomb had the inscription GWM-250, which, most likely, meant "weight model" (size and weight of the model) 250 kg. On the other hand, the planes were also shot down by a 500-kilogram KAB-500M guided bomb.
Other footage shows the satellite dish under the dismantled shroud on the top of the forward fuselage of the Altius, as well as the first seen optoelectronic warhead under the center fuselage. The ground operator stations of the Altius system are also shown. The Altius aircraft with its weapons also participated in the Army-2020 exhibition in Kubinka in August this year, but was in a closed part, inaccessible to the press and the public.
The second flying copy built as part of the Altius-O development work during a closed demonstration at the Kazan airport on May 17, 2017.
In 2010, the Russian Ministry of Defense determined the requirements for a new generation of large unmanned aerial vehicles and presented them to potential contractors. The HALE class program received the code Altius (lat. above). Five companies took part in the competition, including RAC "MiG", and the construction office of OKB "Sokol" from Kazan, since April 2014, called OKB im. Simonov (Mikhail Simonov, who subsequently headed the Sukhoi Design Bureau for many years, led the Kazan team in 1959-69). For many years, the Sokol Design Bureau has been (and is) engaged in air targets and small tactical unmanned aerial vehicles.
In October 2011, the company received a contract worth 1,155 million rubles ($38 million at the current exchange rate) from the Russian Ministry of Defense to carry out research work on Altius-M until December 2014. The result of the work was the development of the concept and preliminary design of the aircraft, as well as the creation of a demonstrator of the technology of the future camera. In the autumn of 01, a prototype of 2014 was ready; the first known satellite image of "Altius-M" at the airport "Kazan" from September 25, 2014. However, the takeoff attempt failed; It is reported that the landing gear broke as a result. The aircraft successfully took off for the first time in Kazan in mid-July 2016. Considering that a year and a half passed between takeoff attempts, changes were probably made to the aircraft, and especially to its control system.
Earlier, in November 2014, the Simonov Design Bureau received a contract worth 3,6 billion rubles (approximately 75 million US dollars) for the next stage, for the development work of Altius-O. As a result, two prototypes (numbered 02 and 03) were built and tested. Judging by the available photos, aircraft 02 does not yet have equipment and is close to equipment demonstrator 01. 03 already has some equipment, including a satellite communication station; it has recently been fitted with an optoelectronic head.
In the meantime, events were taking place, the behind-the-scenes reasons for which are difficult for an outside observer to judge. In April 2018, the General Director and Chief Designer of OKB im. Simonov, Alexander Gomzin, were arrested on charges of embezzlement and embezzlement of public funds. A month later, it was released, but in September 2018, the Ministry of Defense terminated the contract with the Simonov Design Bureau under the Altius-O program, and in December transferred the project with all the documentation to a new contractor - UZGA. Together with the transfer to the UZGA, the program received another code name "Altius-U". On August 20, 2019, the Altius-U unmanned aerial vehicle made its highly publicized first flight. The aircraft shown in the photographs provided by the Russian MoD was number 881, but is likely a repaint of a previous 03 that had flown before; it is not known what changes were made to it after it was handed over to the USCA. It was this 881 that was shown along with weapons to Minister Krivoruchko in June 2020.
In December 2019, the Russian Ministry of Defense ordered another Altius-RU development work from UZGA. There is no information about how it differs from the previous one; probably, by analogy with the Forpost-R mentioned below, R means Russian and means the replacement of foreign components of the system with Russian ones. According to Krivoruchko, Altius-RU will be a reconnaissance and strike complex with a new generation of unmanned aerial vehicles, equipped with a satellite communications system and artificial intelligence elements capable of interacting with manned aircraft.
