In Russia, defense industry company NPO Neolit has developed a durable unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for use in military training centers. The training aircraft, named UN-001, aims to significantly reduce vehicle losses that occur during trainee pilot training.
The company's general director Viktor Lobanov told RIA Novosti that currently, pilot candidates at training centers under the Ministry of Defense are trained directly with combat UAVs. Lobanov said, 'Up to 5 to 6 vehicles are lost by the time a trainee group graduates. This situation places a serious burden on both the budget and frontline stocks.'
Lobanov emphasized that the UN-001 has a similar cost to its combat counterpart but can withstand 150 hard landings, and in most cases, only a propeller change is needed. Lobanov said, 'As a company, we made a deliberate choice and produced a durable training vehicle instead of a fragile and expensive drone. In hard landings, the impact energy is absorbed by the deformation of shock absorbers, and propeller replacement takes only minutes.'
The experimental use process was completed at three training centers in the Voronezh, Moscow, and Belgorod regions. All UAV instructors confirmed that the training aircraft's operational characteristics are exactly the same as those of combat models. This allows working on a wide range of scenarios, from airfield flights to tactical takeoffs from short and unprepared runways.
Lobanov stated that the company's priority is to provide a reliable training platform for the Russian army, saying, 'This will preserve the resource of combat vehicles and accelerate the process for young pilots to begin their missions. We are currently preparing the mass production line and have received preliminary requests from several regional centers.'
