The Orion-E medium-altitude long endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle fitted with weapons was demonstrated at the Rosoboronexport’s exposition at IDEX 2021 expo in Abu Dhabi. This is first official presentation of this drone in the armed configuration at the foreign expo.
According to the developer, the private Kronshtadt company, the Orion-E can use a broad range of munitions. As the firm’s representative had told TASS news agency, the UAV consists entirely of the domestic components.
Earlier, at the ARMY 2020 expo in Russia in 2020 the Kronshtadt demonstrated the attack version of the Orion with the munitions showcased separately in front of it. At the ARMY expo Rosoboronexport and Kronshtadt signed an agreement on mutual cooperation in the area of foreign trade. The Russian state exporter expressed its readiness to promote it to partners from the Asia-Pacific region, Middle East and North Africa.
Orion-E is a long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle intended for performing missions in a wide range of climate zones The maximum take-off weight is 1 t, the maximum payload weight is 200 kg. The maximum flight duration is 24 hours, and the speed is up to 200 km/h.
Also at IDEX Russia presented the smaller Orlan-10E UAV system designed for constant remote aerial reconnaissance and monitoring of ground objects and facilities. The drone is capable of providing remote monitoring of the earth’s surface by means of photo, video and IR equipment.
It can also carry equipment to perform monitoring of electronic systems. The official presentation materials of the Orlan-10E also emphasize the option of the UAV’s use in search operations to detect and identify mobile terrorist groups, as well as the ability to detect objects through radio emission sources in jungles.
