Russia Firm Displays Mine-Clearing Drone

Russia today showcased a mine-clearing drone named "Strekoza" (Dragonfly).

The aircraft was unveiled during 24th Interpolitex-2020 international homeland security exhibition is running at the VDNH All-Russian Exhibition Center in Moscow that is taking place between October 20-23.

The drone can detect and detonate improvised explosive devices, Alexander Slobodyanyuk, Senior Expert of Russia’s state arms seller Rosoboronexport, said on Wednesday.

"I would like to tell [you] about the drone-based system of detecting improvised explosive devices. The system has been named Strekoza. We have an ordinary copter, on which we mount a non-linear locator and there is also a control post with an operator," Slobodyanyuk said in the company’s video presentation on the YouTube channel as part of the Intrepolitex-2020 international security exhibition.

The Strekoza drone can operate at an altitude of up to 30m. It attaches a TNT to a suspicious object which detonates remotely. The operator’s control panel also shows the copter’s flight trajectory as indicated in green in the absence of dangerous objects. If the Strekoza detects a suspicious object, the flight trajectory indicates a yellow mark while a red mark will appear on the screen if the detector precisely identifies a dangerous object, Russian state media reported.

The drone is outfitted with a video camera that enables the operator to examine a dangerous object and the environment in detail from all angles.