Russia’s Molniya Aerial Drones |
The battlefield has always demanded innovation and adaptation for the sole purpose of overpowering the enemy. Russia has successfully demonstrated its battlefield adaptation by developing and deploying the Molniya drones.
Introduction
There is little or no doubt that Russia has mastered this art of producing cost-effective and technology-driven weapons that can be mass-produced to hit and destroy the multiple scattered military targets around the battlespace. It is noteworthy that Russia has designed and produced such weapons, which could destroy enemy targets, while not endangering its own troops.
Molniya Aerial Drones
Russia has designed and developed the Molniya (Lightning) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The word Molniya is from the Russian language and could be translated as lightning. Basically, it is a fixed-wing small aircraft capable of reaching targets up to a maximum range of 60 kilometres using wireless radio communication. Its length is around 1.5 metres and it has the same wingspan. It has a lightweight design, and its airframe is built with inexpensive materials like Styrofoam, plywood, hardened plastic, and aluminium pipes. This attribute of its manufacturing materials helps in difficult or no detection by radars, and making it a completely invisible killer. Its lightweight allows it be launched using a pneumatic catapult, and a crew of two........