By dismantling a Russian Orlan-10 military drone captured by the Ukrainian army, we can see that its design is very rudimentary, even artisanal…
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With its famous Turkish drones Bayraktar, the Ukrainian army managed to reduce the Russian armed forces. Publications, clips and songs praising them are numerous and this symbol helps to maintain the morale of the Ukrainian population in the face of the aggressor. Anything that can help discredit the enemy is good to take and this is precisely the case of one of the latest videos published by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. We see a soldier presenting the weaknesses of a small drone of Russian intelligence recovered by theukrainian army. This is an Orlan-10, a drone under 20 kgproduced for the Russian Armed Forces by the Center for Special Technologies in St. Petersburg.
Even if the composition of this military drone is already known, the soldier points out the rudimentary design of theaircraft. The optronics module is indeed more than artisanal with a low-end Canon digital camera, a Canon EOS Rebel T6i. Dated 2015, the device, whose lens comes out of the belly of the drone, is fixed with a simple band velcro. Its shooting mode selection dial is sealed with glue to avoid changing the setting. Other elements of the drone are also fixed with adhesive tapes.
A low-end camera attached to Velcro and a plastic bottle as a fuel tank, here is the behind the scenes of a Russian military surveillance drone. © ArmyInform UA
An almost artisanal drone
As another detail showing the design worthy of the DIY of this drone, the soldier shows his fuel tank. It looks like it was made from a bottle in plastic with its screw cap to refuel. For the rest, this drone which is marketed between 87,000 and 120,000 dollars depending on the equipment, is equipped with an engine and a fuselage whose design and production are 100% Russian. It is designed to evolve around 100 km/h with an autonomy of 18 hours.
As for the electronic elements, including this Japanese camera, given its age, it seems obvious that the cessation of exports will have no impact on the manufacture of these drones.
According to the Ukrainian army, the Orlan-10 has been in operation since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, in the Donbass in 2014. It was then used for reconnaissance and artillery fire adjustment missions for the separatist armed forces supported by the Kremlin.
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