Zala 421-24 BVS (Unmanned Aircraft)

Main article: Unmanned aerial vehicle (drone, UAV)

2024: The general director of the St. Petersburg company "Kadry production" received 3 years in prison for trying to take the Russian military drone Zala abroad

On November 8, 2024, the Savyolovsky District Court of Moscow sentenced Alexander Nerush, General Director of the St. Petersburg company Kadry production, and Fathi El Hadi Juan, a native of Libya. They received three years in prison for trying to take technologies abroad that could be used to create weapons and military equipment. Read more here.

2022

Start of deliveries of drones to the Russian Federation

Kalashnikov began deliveries of the latest military drones to Russian troops. This was announced in early November 2022 by the head of the concern Alan Lushnikov.

We have not announced this, but we are already supplying copters to the army. This is a whole line. Some of them are already produced and supplied in series. Part is in development and will be released on the series next year. The most different nomenclature for a wide variety of purposes is intelligence and so on. This is a very important direction, and we pay serious attention to it, "he said (quoted by TASS).

Kalashnikov began deliveries of drones to the Russian Federation

One of these drones - ZALA 421-24 of Zala Aero (part of the Kalashnikov group of companies of the Rostec state corporation), was presented at the Army-2022 forum.

According to Rostec, this drone is capable of operating in electronic countermeasures and flying in full radio silence mode. The drone can fly more than 30 minutes at an altitude of up to 1.5 thousand meters, reach speeds of up to 30 km/h, and its communication range is more than 3.5 km.

The Kalashnikov concern laid down an increase in the production program for 2023 for small arms, precision weapons, artillery and unmanned aerial vehicles.

When we planned 2022 in 2021, we initially laid the growth of the small arms production program by 40%. And I can say that next year we are laying a further increase, I do not want to give numbers, but we are laying an increase in the production program for all our products. Let me remind you: these are small arms, and precision weapons - missiles, and artillery shells, these are unmanned aerial vehicles - there is growth in all directions, - said Alan Lushnikov.[1]

Presentation of Zala 421-24 serial sample

A subsidiary of the Kalashnikov concern, Zala Aero, showed a serial sample of a ZALA 421-24 quadcopter. This became known on August 14, 2022.

According to the manufacturer, the ZALA 421-24 quadcopter type has a compact foldable design and is able to remain invisible in the air due to its low acoustic and visual visibility. The device is controlled using a manual controller (KRV), operation from a mobile vehicle is allowed.

Among the features of the device for August 2022:

• Placement of the complex in one protected case
• Autonomous operation
• Fast start - no more than 120 seconds.
• Operation from a mobile vehicle
• Application in a wide range of weather conditions
• Target Retention and Tracking
• Noise-proof duplicated data channel
• Ability to work with individual positioning devices (ZALA beacon)
• The flight duration of ZALA 421-24 is over 30 minutes with a maximum weight of 3.6 kg and dimensions of 540 x 540 x 190 mm. The communication range exceeds 3.5 kilometers^[2].

ZALA 421-24 was first shown in the summer of 2021. According to a ZALA Aero spokesman, [[<GKF|the drone]] has already passed^[3] tests^[4] of the ^[5].

Notes