Russian media reported on Thursday that Russian forces appear to have shot down one of their own Orlan-10 surveillance drones.
According to media reports, the unmanned aircraft was shot down in the Verkhnekhavsky district of the Voronezh region on 27 July.
The Telegram channel of the Russian Mash media outlet said the Oraln-10 drone was intercepted by Russia’s electronic warfare forces.
“Specialists cordoned off the UAV crash site and are now establishing where it was launched from and by whom,” a media report said.
The cost of an Orlan-10 unmanned aircraft can reach $87,000 to $120,000. It is intended for a variety of missions including aerial reconnaissance, observation, monitoring, search and rescue, combat training, jamming, detection of radio signals, and target tracking in hard-to-reach terrains.
The drone has a wingspan of 3.1m and its aerodynamic fuselage is 2m long. The empty weight and maximum take-off weights of the UAV are 12.5kg and 16.5kg respectively.
The Orlan is launched using a collapsible catapult and recovered using a parachute landing system.