Israeli-Russian drones being tested near Yekaterinburg
MOSCOW. Jan 9 (Interfax-AVN) - The Ural Civil Aviation Plant based in Yekaterinburg and affiliated with the defense industry corporation Oboronprom has started flight tests of the first Forpost and Zastava unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), which were developed by Israel and are being built in Russia for the Russian Defense Ministry under an Israeli license, Oboronprom said in a statement.
"The Forpost and Zastava unmanned aerial vehicles have been tested at the Salka flight base near Yekaterinburg since December 2012. Despite extreme weather conditions (temperatures dropped under minus 30 degrees Celsius on some days and reached minus 50 degrees Celsius at an altitude of 2,000 meters), the drones' systems are functioning nominally and have never faulted," the statement says.
The drones are being assembled in Russia under an agreement that Oboronprom and Israel Aerospace Industries LTD (IAI) concluded in 2010. Under the agreement, the Israeli company has provided the necessary documents, technological equipment, test beds, and simulators. IAI is also supplying the components and is training the Ural Civil Aviation Plant's technicians. The technology under which the drones are being assembled complies with Russian technology standards, it said.
In the course of the contract's implementation, Oboronprom "has acquired unique competence in mastering an industrial technology of manufacturing modern unmanned aerial vehicles. In the future, this practical experience would enable the corporation to increase the level of localization of manufacturing these systems by employing domestically-produced components," it said.
The drones have been tested under a state defense order on supplying the Defense Ministry with unmanned aerial vehicles in line with the state armaments program.
