The Russian Defence Ministry has published a video of its new 6-tonne drone taking to the skies for its maiden flight.

Boasting that the Altius-U drone can stay up in the air ‘for up to 24 hours’, Russia says the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) will undertake a wide variety of reconnaissance missions.

For the maiden flight, the drone flew for a total of 30 minutes at an altitude of 800 metres and landed safely afterwards.

The Defense Ministry posted the video of the reconnaissance drone’s debut flight in its YouTube page. The video shows the drone speeding up along the runway of a military aerodrome and making its flight.

The video also shows the drone performing maneuvers in the air with the non-retracted landing gear and making a landing.

‘The system is capable of accomplishing a whole range of reconnaissance assignments, employing optical, radio-technical and radar equipment and staying in the air for over 24 hours. The drone weighs about 6 tonnes,’ the ministry said in a statement.

Earlier this month, news emerged that the Russian government is working on a new stealth bomber as well.

The plane is called the PAK DA and will be tested in the coming years before being rolled out as soon as 2025, the Russian news agency TASS announced. </s> Another week, another Russian drone makes its first successful take-off. The defense ministry published footage of the maiden flight of a high-endurance reconnaissance UAV called Altius-U.

The footage shows a twin-engine large drone with a V-shaped tail performing its maiden flight. According to the ministry statement, the aircraft spent just over 30 minutes in the air and performed both the take off and landing in automatic mode.

Dubbed ‘Altius-U’ by the ministry, the 6-ton drone is meant as a high-endurance reconnaissance platform. It can stay in flight for more than 24 hours and has a satellite uplink for control, allowing it to be piloted from a great distance.

The drone is alternatively called Altair and has been in the works for quite some time. The project was launched in 2011 and had a bumpy road to finally taking off. Last year the contract was stripped from its original builder in Kazan over delays and was awarded instead to a Yekaterinburg-based subsidiary of the defense giant Rostec to complete.

Earlier this month another Russian heavy drone called Okhotnik (‘Hunter’ in Russian) made its maiden flight. That aircraft is meant to be a ground attack platform and has a flying wing body type.

Altius-U is said to be the final design that came out of the project so far. Earlier reports said it may be lightly armed when finally entering service. It was not immediately clear if a strike modification is still on the table.

If you like this story, share it with a friend! </s> MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/. Russia’s latest reconnaissance drone Altius-U weighing 6 tonnes has performed its debut flight, the Defense Ministry of Russia said on Tuesday.

"The flight lasted 32 minutes at an altitude of up to 800 meters in a fully automatic mode at one of testing aerodromes. All the drone’s systems operated normally," the ministry said in a statement.

Russia’s Defense Ministry posted the video of the reconnaissance drone’s debut flight in its YouTube page. The video shows the drone speeding up along the runway of a military aerodrome and making its flight. The video footage further demonstrates the drone performing maneuvers in the air with the non-retracted landing gear and making a landing. The drone’s board number is 881.

The Altius-U is the drone’s final conceptual design after the tests of several prototypes, the Defense Ministry said.

"The system is capable of accomplishing a whole range of reconnaissance assignments, employing optical, radio-technical and radar equipment and staying in the air for over 24 hours. The drone weighs about 6 tonnes," the ministry specified.

The Altius-U features a satellite control channel, "which makes the radius of its employment actually unlimited," the statement says. </s> The Russian Defense Ministry posted a video of the maiden flight of a 6-tonne Altius-U drone, capable of being in the air for more than 24 hours

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th August, 2019) The Russian Defense Ministry posted a video of the maiden flight of a 6-tonne Altius-U drone, capable of being in the air for more than 24 hours.

A video lasting 1 minute 3 seconds was posted on the ministry's YouTube channel. The video shows the drone's flight and maneuvers in the sky, as well as landing. </s> A 1 minute and 3 second video was posted on the ministry's YouTube channel. The video shows the drone's flight and manoeuvres in the sky, as well as landing.

Altius-U is the final form of this unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), created as a result of the development and testing of a number of prototypes. The flight took place for 32 minutes at an altitude of up to 800 metres in fully automatic mode at one of the test aerodromes. All systems of the complex worked properly, the Ministry of Defence noted.

According to the report, the complex is capable of performing an entire spectrum of reconnaissance missions using optical, radio engineering and radar and can stay in the air for more than a day.

A feature of the complex is the use of a satellite control channel, making the radius of its application practically unlimited.
The Russian Ministry of Defence announces that the six-tonne satellite-controlled reconnaissance drone Altius-U has performed its maiden flight.