New Russian surveillance UAV owl look-alike: Russia's new surveillance UAV looks like an owl, and for good reason

Russia has developed a new combat surveillance UAV. The flying machine takes the form of a bird, in this case an owl, as reported this Tuesday, June 25 the Moscow Times. Indeed, this drone, developed by Technopolis Era, looks like a Snowy Owl with a mouth filled with electronic equipment. It was unveiled at the annual military exhibition of the Russian Ministry of Defense. The unmanned aerial vehicle would be equipped with a laser to guide ground artillery and laser guided bombs.

The drone weighs only 5 kg, one person is enough to transport and activate it, said the developers of the machine at the TASS, a Russian public news agency. The company has also developed a hawk-like drone. It would have a flight time of up to 40 minutes and would be able to travel up to 20 km.

Creating drone-like drones is a concept that Russian developers of unmanned aerial systems have been studying for quite some time. For example, the Chukovsky-Gagarin Air Force Academy last year presented an owl-shaped model.

New Russian surveillance UAV owl look-alike

A drone that looks like an owl can go unnoticed!

"What's interesting is that Russian designers are thinking creatively about drone applications," said Samuel Bendett, research analyst at the Center for Naval Analyzes, at C4ISRNET at the time. He explained that "biomimicry allows these machines to fly in areas where a 'normal' drone has been spotted and shot down."

"In the Russian part of Eurasia, where hunting for birds such as owls, hawks and eagles is widespread, a bird-like drone can become an invaluable asset for surveillance missions," he said. he adds. "He can 'hide' while being in everyone's sight." From close up, it's quite simple to realize that this is a drone but at medium or long distance, it becomes much harder to distinguish the machine from a flying bird.

Last year, during the presentation of the drone, his stated goal was to locate tanks and other enemy combat vehicles and then direct the shots to their positions.

These drones with biomimetic design, although strange, are not that new. A few years ago, a crude, bird-like drone crashed in Mogadishu, Somalia. The craft would belong to the Somali government. In Canada, robotic birds are currently being tested to keep birds away from airports. And, for its part, China has designed reconnaissance drones that fly, move and look like doves. They are used for surveillance operations on their own territory.