Ukraine intends to develop a heavy shock reconnaissance drone – analogue of the Turkish attack drone Akıncı. The main developer will be GP “Antonov”. This is reported by Ukrainian media.
reportedly, it was proposed to develop an attack drone project on the initiative “Ukroboronproma”, at the same time, development work and the manufacture of a UAV demonstrator, Company, who will be part of the project, must spend at their own expense.
“Antonov” will be responsible for the creation of the drone itself, including chassis and engines, as which it is proposed to use the AI-450 production “Ivchenko-Progress”. The development of electronic filling and related equipment will be carried out by other enterprises.
The result should be a heavy unmanned aerial vehicle with a takeoff weight of over 3 tons and capable of carrying up to 800 kg of armament. Work will not be carried out in a vacuum, reported, that even in 2018 year “Antonov” presented a model of a strategic unmanned aerial vehicle, capable with its own take-off weight in 6 tons to carry 1,4 tons of payload. It was stated, that this drone is capable of being in the air up to 24 hours.
Hope in Kyiv, that it will be possible to develop a new strike UAV quite quickly. An example is the Turkish company Baykar, which began to develop the Akıncı UAV in 2018 year, and by the end 2019 the first prototype has already flown.
