Russia's drone program, for
years dormant and lagging behind the West, has resurfaced in a big way
recently, with widespread use in Syria punctuated Friday by the downing inside
Turkey of an unmanned vehicle that could belong to Moscow.
Russia began fielding
drones in Syria in
September as part of the military buildup that preceded airstrikes on behalf of
its ally, the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Russian drones
are also reportedly in use in Ukraine.
All
told, Russian military and security forces have an inventory of about 800
drones, all believed unarmed and primarily used for intelligence and
reconnaissance purposes, an analyst with HIS Jane's told CNN Friday.
It
is not clear that the drone downed Friday by a Turkish warplane inside of Turkey -- which borders Syria --
is Russian. Moscow has denied the reports, although two U.S. defense officials
say they believe the drone is Russian.
But
it is clear that after years with little in the way of drone technology, Moscow
has ramped up its emphasis on unmanned aerial vehicles in recent years, said
Douglas Barrie, senior fellow for Military Aerospace at the International
Institute for Strategic Studies.
"In the aftermath
of the collapse of the Soviet Union UAV R&D was neglected, and it is only
in the past decade or so that Russia has re-focused attention on this area of
military capability," he said.
In the last five years
or so, Russia has relied significantly on models from Israeli defense
contractors, some of which it has licensed to produce in Russia, said Derrick
Maple, principle analyst for unmanned Systems at IHS Jane's.
But Russia has pledged
to spend nearly $10 billion over the next decade to further develop its drone
fleet, including muscular armed drones similar to some fielded by the United
States, Maple said.
For instance, Russia
has been developing an armed drone called Skat since at least 2005, according
to IHS Jane's. The drone could be capable of carrying multiple anti-ship or
radar missiles, guided bombs or conventional bombs.
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