KB Lazurit Sarma (underwater drone)

2021: Creating a drone capable of working under ice for 3 months

In mid-September 2021, it became known about the creation of the Sarma underwater drone in Russia, which, according to the developers, is able to work under the ice for up to three months, while transmitting data to the surface and receiving new tasks.

This was reported by TASS with reference to the deputy head of the department of physical and technical research of the Foundation for Advanced Studies (FPI) Viktor Litvinenko. According to him, this is the first of its kind apparatus - not a single competitor by September 2021 can work autonomously for so long.

Sarma underwater drone

It is noted that "Sarma," being under the thickness of ice, will be controlled all this time. To do this, computers and consoles will be involved. The device is able to dive to a depth of 1 km and overcome distances of up to 8 thousand km.

Sarma assumes a modular design, so the tasks that the drone can solve can expand. For example, it can be used to survey the bottom, bottom topography, objects, monitoring gas pipelines, mapping and exploration.

Sarma was developed by order of the FPI by the joint-stock company TsKB Lazurit, a design bureau and production enterprise formed in 1953 in the city of Gorky for the development of combat and special-purpose submarines, as well as underwater structures and facilities.

Former supervisor of the Soyuz NPP, which is developing hydroacoustic complexes for submarines, Viktor Leksin noted that Lazurit Design Bureau, which developed Sarma, has a large backlog in the development and creation of deep-sea vehicles for the Arctic zone.

There is its own specifics related to depth, temperature, composition, and Lazurite knows all this very well. So I am sure that they will cope, "he said.[1]

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