Rosoboronexport is showcasing a variety of UAVs at the XII International Meeting of High Representatives for Security Issues in St Petersburg, Russia, from 23 to 25 April.

The event is being attended by high-level delegations from the Russian Federation’s partners.

Russia’s industrial means have proven more resilient across the course of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine than observers had originally anticipated, but the nation has been importing large numbers of Iranian drones to meet its battlefield needs. 

Largely drawing on Iranian exports of Shahed drones, the demand from Russia has generally been for lower-cost single-use attack drones, contrasting with the range of systems the Russian state export intermediary is demonstrating, save for a single loitering munition, the KUB-E.

Among the UAVs to be seen in St Petersburg, Rosoboronexport is showing Kronstadt’s Orion-E reconnaissance/strike system, Orlan-10E and Orlan-30 reconnaissance UAVs, and the Skat S-350 UAV.

The showcase will also include counter-UAV capabilities with systems such as the RB-504P-E, the SKVP airspace control system, and designs from the Vector Research Institute (a part of Rostec State Corporation). These include the Radiomonitoring communication channel monitoring station and the Serp-VS6 (Sickle) ECM system, designed to disable small UAVs.

Rosoboronexport claims that the UAV countermeasures have been successfully used during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, citing evidence from flight recorded data and feedback from operators. 

"Rosoboronexport offers its partners the most advanced Russian equipment to protect civilian and military installations, ensure public security on land, in the air, at sea and in cyberspace, and control and protect borders. All solutions promoted by the company have been tested in real conditions and have excellent feedback from special operations officers,” said Alexander Mikheev, director general of Rosoboronexport.