VLADIVOSTOK, August 29 (RIA Novosti) - Specialists from Russia’s Eastern Military District have started the assembly of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), which are to carry out patrol missions over Russia’s Far Eastern Kamchatka peninsula, Roman Martov, a representative for the Ministry of Defense told RIA Novosti Friday.
“The assembly of the UAVs for conducting the first flights has been launched at an airbase in northeastern Russia. A ground control station is built and ready for operation. The detachment includes six Russian-made Forpost drones that went into operation in the beginning of this year, and all the unit’s personnel have already completed a training course at an airbase in Kubinka, near Moscow,” the official said.
Martov added that the unit’s tasks are to practice operating the new equipment, plan flight routes above the coast and mainland of the Kamchatka peninsula, and, in the long term, organize the search, positioning and identification of ground and naval objects and real-time data transmission.
On May 20, the Russian Defense Ministry announced it would spend $9.2 billion on acquiring new drones and training military personnel to operate the UAVs before 2020.
