Russian Altius Drone Crashes due to Unknown Electronic Warfare Measures

The promising Russian heavy strike drone Altius crashed as a result of electronic warfare measures.

This was reported by Russian media outlets citing the Ural Civil Aviation Plant.

It is noted that during the flight, communication with the drone was jammed by an unidentified electronic warfare device, which disrupted satellite navigation.

After losing communication, the drone switched to an inertial navigation system and attempted to land.

The Altius was conducting a test flight over the Kazan region of the Russian Federation and, as a result of losing control, crashed into a private house in the Kazanka-3 gardening community.

Altius

The Altius-U was developed by the Simonov Design Bureau in Kazan since 2011.

Flight tests began in 2016, and in 2018, the project was transferred to the Ural Civil Aviation Plant in Tatarstan.

The aircraft made its first fully automatic flight in August 2019: it took off from the airfield, performed the planned maneuvers in the air, and landed successfully.

Altius-U has a wingspan of 28.5 meters, a length of 11.6 meters, and a takeoff weight of 7 tons.

The maximum flight altitude is 12 km, the range is up to 10,000 km, and the autonomy is up to 48 hours in the air.

The payload of the multi-purpose drone includes an optical reconnaissance station with an optoelectronic system and a side-looking radar station with an active phased array.

In the summer of 2021, during tests, the UAV used aviation weapons against ground targets for the first time.