Kazakhstan to manufacture military drones
K-310 is a multi-purpose UAV designed by Kazakhstan Gharysh Sapary National Company. It has been presented today at KADEX 2018 International Exhibition of Weapons Systems and Military Equipment.
"In Kazakhstan, this type of unmanned aerial vehicles is not produced yet. It is a convertiplane. It takes off vertically like a normal quadcopter, and then, after the climb, the sustainer motor is started and the vehicle flies directionally. There are fixed-wing type drones and quadcopter. It is more of a helidrone type. It can carry a payload of up to 1.5 kg. With its infrared-capable camera, it can make videos at night, and perform aerial photography operation depending on the tasks. This model is more intended to be used by law enforcement agencies for reconnaissance purposes, by border guard services, for target tracking. The duration of the flight can last for 1.5 hours," said Dmitriy Zernov, the Acting Director of the High-Precision Satellite Navigation System Center of Kazakhstan Gharysh Sapary.
According to him, such unmanned aerial vehicles are not used in Kazakhstan yet. This model is exhibited to show where it can be used.
"We plan to begin mass production of this prototype vehicle after military tests. We plan to conduct military tests in July-August. Now it is ready, it flies. It has already passed a series of tests with various types of payloads. With law enforcement agencies, we are now considering the tasks and how the tests will be conducted," said Dmitriy Zernov.
According to him, traditional unmanned aerial vehicles use catapult launch mechanism for take-off. Kazakhstan's R&D product takes off as a quadcopter. In addition, as Dmitriy Zernov said, Kazakhstan's drones are twice as cheap as traditional ones.
"Our prices vary from KZT 6 to KZT 7 million or above depending on the payload. In the market, unmanned aerial vehicles cost KZT12-15 million, KZT 30 million and more," he said.