Belarus’ UAV technologies center set to sell $4m worth of drones in 2015

The Belarusian R&D center for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technologies of the Physics Technology Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus expects to sell drones for some $4 million in 2015, Head of the R&D center Yury Yatsyna said at the press conference “Innovation technologies: Unmanned aircraft systems” on 10 February, BelTA has learned.

“Today the market of UAVs amounts to around $10 billion. In 2014 we earned $650,000, and this year we expect to get $4 million. This is a good result, taking into account that the center was set up just in 2011,” Yury Yatsyna noted.

He believes that the production and export of such aircraft systems is a profitable business. “The production of such vehicles requires little energy and materials, but it is very science-intensive. One small drone features the best technologies. Only countries with high scientific and technological potential can manufacture them, and we have such potential,” Yury Yatsyna pointed out.

The R&D center for UAV technologies was created in 2011 as part of the program for the innovation-driven development of Belarus. The first phase of the facility to make small-range unmanned aerial vehicles was commissioned in 2012. The second phase of the facility to make UAVs with the operational range of up to 290km will be commissioned this year, said Yuri Yatsyna. The facility can make more than ten small-range UAVs per annum. Once the second phase of the facility is commissioned, it will be able to also make from five to ten long-range UAVs per annum.

The R&D center for UAV technologies of the Physics Technology Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus is the CIS only enterprise certified to batch produce unmanned aerial vehicles of its own design. The center can develop and batch produce several kinds of merchandise, including compact unmanned aerial vehicles with the operational range of 25km and 50km, an environmental monitoring UAV based on a dirigible, the Burevestnik UAV as well as photosystems for UAVs and automatic control systems.