Key points
- On July 8, the newest Altius-U drone, which was performing a test flight, probably crashed in Tatarstan.
- The drone has a wingspan of 28.5 meters, a takeoff weight of 7 tons and can stay in the air for up to 48 hours; its development began in 2011.
The ultra-modern Russian Altius UAV could have crashed in Tatarstan / Collage 24 Kanal
On July 8, a “light-engine Cessna aircraft” crashed right onto a private home in Russian Tatarstan. However, it could well have been the newest Altius-U drone.
It was allegedly making a test flight. This was reported by 24 Kanal , citing Russian media.
What is known about the Altius UAV
Russian media write that Altius fell on a house allegedly because navigation was disrupted by unidentified electronic warfare equipment.
And Tatarstan, where this happened, is a key region where Russians assemble and test their drones.
As noted in “Militarny”, before the fall, local residents saw that the flight of “Altius” was accompanied by a Cessna aircraft.
Some Ukrainian OSINT projects also write that it was not a Cessna that crashed, but this “promising” Russian UAV.
Sometimes called the Altius, this reconnaissance and strike UAV has:
- wingspan – 28.5 meters,
- length – 11.6 meters,
- take-off weight – 7 tons,
- flight altitude – 12 kilometers,
- flight range – up to 10 thousand kilometers,
- time spent in the air – up to 48 hours.
The Russians began working on it back in 2011, and the first flight tests took place in 2016.
In 2019, Altius made its first fully automated flight.
After 2020, work on it accelerated.
In 2021, the Russians announced the conclusion of a contract to supply the Russian Ministry of Defense with the first batch of these UAVs. That same year, the first use of weapons from this drone against ground targets was reported.
The Altius can carry air bombs and air-to-surface missiles.
Analysts suggest that by creating such a drone, Russia wanted to create an analogue of the American MQ-9 Reaper, which also has both reconnaissance and strike functions.
