- Russia has presented an Orion UAV equipped with two Kh-BPLA guided missiles developed by JSC Instrument Design Bureau.
- The Kh-BPLA uses components from Kornet and Krasnopol systems, with a range of 2–8 km and a 6 kg warhead.
Russian defense officials have showcased a new strike-capable configuration of the Orion unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with two Kh-BPLA (TKB‑1030) guided missiles.
The Orion, developed by Kronstadt Group, is already in use by the Russian military for reconnaissance and limited strike missions. The latest variant was publicly displayed carrying two newly integrated Kh-BPLA munitions, which were developed by JSC Instrument Design Bureau (KBP), a subsidiary of the High-Precision Systems holding under Rostec.
The new missile is designed to engage ground and naval targets from aerial platforms and leverages components from existing Russian precision systems to reduce costs and speed up development. To accelerate development and reduce costs, the Kh-BPLA uses components from the Kornet anti-tank missile and the laser guidance system from the Krasnopol guided artillery shell.
The Kh-BPLA has an effective launch range between 2 and 8 kilometers, with a maximum launch altitude of 4 kilometers. The missile is laser-guided and optimized for use with UAV platforms operating at medium altitudes.
The weapon weighs 42 kg with its launch container and 32 kg without it. The warhead is a 6 kg high-explosive fragmentation charge, containing approximately 3.2 kg of explosive filler. The system is designed for lightweight strike operations against personnel, unarmored vehicles, and lightly fortified positions.
Russia’s Orion UAV—comparable in role to the U.S. MQ-1 Predator—has been used in various operational zones, including Syria and Ukraine, primarily for surveillance and precision-guided strikes. The introduction of the Kh-BPLA increases the platform’s ability to engage time-sensitive ground targets with guided munitions while operating outside the envelope of short-range air defenses.
The missile uses semi-active laser guidance and requires either the UAV itself or a separate ground-based or airborne designator to illuminate the target. The inclusion of the laser system from the Krasnopol shell reflects an effort to repurpose field-proven guidance technologies within a compact aerial weapon.