A new drone capable of carrying anti-ship missiles crashed in Russia

The latest Altius-RU strike and reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle crashed in the Russian Tatarstan on July 8. This was reported by Defense Express.

According to preliminary information, it fell on a private house, which probably led to the death of two local residents. The probable cause of the fall is a loss of communication, as a result of which the UAV lost control and flew into a private sector.

At the same time, the press service of the Ural Civil Aviation Plant cited the action of an unidentified electronic warfare system as the cause of the drone's crash.

The Altius-RU UAV is a version of the Russian long-term Altius, the development of which began in 2011 at the Sokol Design Bureau. The first order for the production of these devices was received in 2021 by the Ural Civil Aviation Plant.

At that time, the quantity and delivery dates were not specified, but the announced value of the deal was about 7 billion rubles, which, taking into account inflation, is now about $115 million. Altius-RU were supposed to be delivered to UAV units within the Russian Navy, but since then, almost no information about them has appeared.

The declared characteristics of the "Altius-RU" include the ability to stay in the air for up to 48 hours, fly to an altitude of up to 12 km and cover a distance of up to 10 thousand km. The flight weight of the UAV is supposedly up to 6 tons, the fuselage length is 11.6 m, and the wingspan is 28.5 m.

According to Defense Express, the combat load of the aircraft reaches 1 ton, and the cruising speed is 250 km/h. Among its features is the ability to carry Kh-35U anti-ship missiles with a flight range of up to 260 km.

The UAV is also allegedly equipped with an inertial satellite navigation system and, most likely, an unnamed radar station. It was also reported that the Altius-RU could be equipped with a suspended radar with a phased array antenna and an optical sighting station.

In terms of size and certain characteristics, the Altius-RU potentially surpasses the American MQ-9 Reaper UAV, which has a wingspan of 25 m and a mass of about 2.2 tons. The flight range of the American drone is 1,850 km, which is inferior to the Altius-RU.

As part of the Russian Navy, the drone was to perform reconnaissance and surveillance missions and provide support to groups of ships, submarines and naval aviation.