KB East: Styrofoam drones

2024: Transfer to service of the Russian army

In early March 2024, it became known that the Russian army had adopted an inexpensive unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) made of styrofoam. This drone has a long flight range - over 40 km.

According to reports, the TASS drone was developed in the design bureau (KB) East"." The device belongs to the aircraft type. Polystyrene foam is a gas-filled material obtained from polystyrene and its derivatives, as well as from styrene copolymers. It is a widespread type of foam. Thanks to the use of this material, the cost of producing a drone is significantly reduced.

source = KB East

It is noted that the UAV can carry a payload weighing up to 5 kg on board. The developer's website says that KB specialists have created a multi-purpose single-use platform. These are drones with a warhead that are able to stay in the air in the area of ​ ​ the target for a long time in standby mode and quickly attack it after receiving the appropriate command from the operator. In addition, such drones can perform the tasks provided for by the laid down algorithm. The declared cruising speed reaches 120 km/h. As of early March 2024, new drones are operated by the Vostok battalion in the DPR.

After the completion of the tests, the Vostok battalion will immediately begin to use the new device in the special operation zone. All advanced technologies and ideas of the design bureau are very quickly tested by the battalion and go into series. I am glad that this process was debugged and made continuous, - said the design bureau.

It is also said that the Design Bureau is developing industrial-class drones for solving various tasks in aerial photography, security and video surveillance, thermal imaging, aeromagnetic photography and other areas.^[1]

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