Unmanned aerial vehicles, robotics and drones are today the leading developments in the scientific and technical sphere of the country. In St. Petersburg, more than 5 enterprises are engaged in the development, production and supply of drones and unmanned aerial vehicles for the civil and military industries. The rating of the most famous of them was published on the website russiandrone.ru.
Almaz Antey – production of UAVs for the needs of small civil aviation
In 2022, a new enterprise for the production, assembly and programming of quadrocopters for the needs of small civil aviation was launched on the basis of the Almaz Antey Obukhov plant. At the enterprise, the body is completely manufactured, components are made from domestic materials. UAV programming is also carried out using our own developed operating systems. The planned production of copters is up to 1000 UAVs per year.
Geoscan – production of agricultural drones, industrial UAVs and drones for various fields of application
Established in 2011, the plant continues to develop rapidly. At the moment, the enterprise occupies more than 5500 square meters of production and scientific base. A design bureau, IT departments, assembly shops, spare parts warehouses, and a repair area are located in the closed area. The company fully develops advanced software for solving problems in surveying, geological exploration, software for UAV operation in the oil and gas sector, in agriculture.
Geoscan’s main products are aircraft-type UAVs Geoscan 201, Geoscan 701. Quadcopters are Geoscan 401, Geoscan Gemini. Pioneer Copter, created for educational purposes to popularize unmanned construction and development in schools and universities. The geography of deliveries of the company’s products is the entire territory of the CIS, as well as the countries of Switzerland, Germany, Greece.
Kronstadt Group of Companies is a manufacturer and developer of heavy UAVs
Another manufacturer from the banks of the Neva – the Kronstadt group of companies – develops and manufactures not only the aircraft themselves, but also ground control stations, software, navigation systems, payload systems – lidars, cameras, infrared cameras. The main product in the field of the unmanned structure of the company is the dual-use ORION aviation complex. It can be used for both civilian and military applications.
The main tasks of ORION are patrolling, reconnaissance, photography, video filming of the area. The device can be up to 24 hours in the air, which allows it to fly between regions of the country, as well as enter international airspace to perform tasks. In the field of on-board equipment for UAVs, the enterprise develops lidars, BANO (airborne navigation lights, direction finders, markers for hidden light designation of objects, etc.)
LLC Prostor — assembly and production of short and medium range quadcopters
Prostor LLC is engaged in the assembly and production of short and medium-range quadrocopters in St. Petersburg according to the needs of the customer. Apparatus for photography, for geodesy, for agriculture are being assembled. The main developments of the devices are based on batteries and the electrical operation of the drone’s engine. This determines such drone flight characteristics as low noise, low radar visibility, and the absence of heat, which complicates the detection of UAV coordinates by infrared sensors.
Design Bureau Gorbunov – the first UAVs with a gasoline two-stroke engine and a cooling system
In St. Petersburg, the development of copters with a gasoline engine is also underway, for the purposes of transportation and logistics of scales up to 25-30 kg. The design of such systems is supervised by Gorbunov Design Bureau, where they test the first devices with a two-stroke gasoline engine and a cooling system.
