The Sokol Altius is a

medium-altitude long-endurance A medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle flies at an altitude window of 10,000 to 30,000 feet (3,000–9,000 m) for extended durations of time, typically 24 to 48 hours.https://www.leonardocompany.com/en/products/falco-xplorer Thi ...

Russian

unmanned combat aerial vehicle An unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV), also known as a combat drone, colloquially shortened as drone or battlefield UAV, is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that is used for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance ...

developed by OKB Sokol (formerly known as Simonov Design Bureau) and Tranzas to perform reconnaissance, strike and electronic attack missions on behalf of the Russian Air Force and Navy. The program started in 2011 and thus far 3 prototypes have been built. The Altius is comparable to the striking and reconnaissance capabilities of the US-made

MQ-9 Reaper The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper (sometimes called Predator B) is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) primarily for the Uni ...

and

RQ-4 Global Hawk The Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk is a high-altitude, remotely-piloted surveillance aircraft of the 1990s–2020s. It was initially designed by Ryan Aeronautical (now part of Northrop Grumman), and known as Tier II+ during development. T ...

UAVs.

Development

The Altius program started in October 2011 after the Russian Ministry of Defense awarded a 3 billion Ruble contract and resulted in three demonstrators. The first one, called Altair, was unveiled in 2014 and flew for the first time in 2016, while the second demonstrator, the Altius-M, was spotted for the first time in 2017. The third demonstrator, the Altius-U, is considered the final evolution of the project, and made its maiden flight in 2019. The drone entered service in 2021. The development of the Altius had known several technical delays because of practical setbacks and cost increases, such as losing the right to use French engines, forcing Russia to develop their own engines for the drone. Altius was originally planned to be fully operational by 2018. In April 2018, the authorities arrested the Director General of OKB Sokol, Simonov Alexander Gomzin, whom the investigation suspected of embezzlement of 900 million rubles allocated for the development of the Altius drone. The Altius will be the backbone of the fleet of Russian heavy drones, the Izvestia daily reported in September 2019. On 21 February 2021, it was reported that a state contract had been signed between the manufacturer and the Russian MoD for the supply of the first batch of Altius, with delivery expected in 2021.

Design

Altius is built according to the classical aerodynamic design with a highly located wing of a large scope and a V-tail. It is known that Altius was built with the wide use of composite structural materials. Altius uses two new VK-800C turboprop engines developed at the

Klimov Design Bureau The JSC Klimov (or Joint Stock Company Klimov) presently manufactures internationally certified gas turbine engines, main gearboxes and accessory drive gearboxes for transport aircraft. Originally established as ''Kirill Klimov Experimental De ...

Variants

*Altair First demonstrator. *Altius-M Second bigger demonstrator. *Altius-U Third and last demonstrator, showing the final design of the Altius drone when in serial production. *Altius Final serial production variant.

Specifications Altius-U

References

Unmanned military aircraft of Russia Aircraft first flown in 2019 2010s Russian military aircraft {{UAV-stub

Development

Design

Variants

Specifications Altius-U

See also

References