SHAH ALAM: Kronsthadt Group Orion E UAS. In 2019 Malaysian Defence posted a story on the eight UASs which was listed as had been forwarded to RMAF in response to a RFI in December 2018. One of the UAS was the Kronsthadt Group Orion E MALE UAV. The Orion E RFI was put forward by local company Alaf Research & Technology for the RFI.
The Orion E is the export variant of the Russian AF version – put into service within the last three years – and the UAV can carry four guided bombs or missiles, a payload of 200 kg and endurance of 24 hours.
As the tender for the MALE UAS like the MPA is an international one, it is likely that the offer for the Orion E was submitted by Kronsthadt together with Rosoboronexport, the Russian state agency for arms export. That said the local company Alaf could also be involved in the tender. It must be noted that on August 28, last year, Rosoboronexport announced its deal with Kronsthadt to market UAVs in the global market.
JSC Rosoboronexport (part of the Rostec State Corporation) and JSC Kronshtadt signed an agreement on mutual cooperation in the area of foreign trade on August 24, 2020, during the International Military-Technical Forum “Army-2020”.
The aim of the action plan is to organize efficient interaction between Rosoboronexport and Kronshtadt in order to expand the volume of exports, as well as the nomenclature of unmanned systems of military, dual use and civilian purpose.
“The global market today displays a rapid growth of demand for unmanned aerial vehicles, which is a distinctive feature of the transition to the sixth technological paradigm. The efficiency of such systems has been proved by their use in military conflicts of recent years. Russian producers, following the global trend, are actively engaged in the development of complexes for various market segments. Here, at the “Army-2020” Forum, Kronshtadt has presented for the first time its Orion reconnaissance-strike complex with an impressive spectrum of weapons, which has huge export potential. We are ready to start promoting it to partners from the Asia-Pacific region, Middle East and North Africa as soon as the compilation of all the authorization documents is over,” said Rosoboronexport’s Director General Alexander Mikheev, who also holds position of Deputy Chairman in the Russian Engineering Union.
Apart from the Orion-E complexes with unmanned aerial vehicles, Rosoboronexport will be able to supply to foreign countries other advanced unmanned aerial vehicles, developed and produced by the Kronshtadt company, which are to be tailored to the interests of different security agencies of foreign customers.
“At this exhibition we are presenting a whole line of UAVs, and in the near future we will also be ready to demonstrate them to foreign customers. We have ambitious plans, i.e. over the next three years, we are to become three times larger. We must enlarge our production facilities (both for serial and trial production) and recruit engineers and designers,” noted Kronshtadt’s CEO Sergei Bogatikov
Despite what both companies said CAATSA hangs heavily on Russian arms export. It is likely a big hammer blow for any export deal to Malaysia and other countries.
— Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (21)
Wing Lonng is the likely winner for Malaysia drone tender due to cost and effectiveness. A small leap for MAF, a giant leap for Malaysia!
Justin - due to cost and effectiveness”
How does one gauge “effectiveness”? Many UASs have been effective” in various conflicts. Many other UASs have impressive tech specs.
Justin - “A small leap for MAF”
Buying a small number of MALEs hardly constitutes a “leap” ..
What will be a “leap” is when we buy decent numbers; are able to coordinate their use with other assets and having an effective “joint” command & control set up.
Slightly off tangent, kinda dissapointing for Alaf to still be offering other platforms with no integration of its own EO systems that 5 years ago they touted as an indigenously-developed echnology including the vibration isolation mounts. Pls update me if I am wrong on this matter.
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Of course they have to offer something already in service, the tender itself said no prototypes will be considered
Justin "Wing Lonng is the likely winner for Malaysia drone tender due to cost and effectiveness. A small leap for MAF, a giant leap for Malaysia!"
China trolls appearing out of nowhere again and making their kintergartener level claims. Just like when someone popped in to claim the CH-4s that Jordan was dumping were wanted by so many countries. Hello "Eddie Stanley", we meet again!
CAATSA, a self-serving tyrannical law imposed by a country onto an unwilling world couch in lengthy acronyms to obfuscate their blatantly obvious arm-wrenching tap out hold ironically onto their democratic world allies and non-aligned countries. Those not comply will be dealt by punitive punishment, regime change or outright invasion. All in the name to "protect" democracy and the free world.
But the real irony.... is how the world watched with wide open eyes as USA morphed into the USSR.
@Justin
The likely targets of the UAV searches will be Chinese ships skulking in Malaysian territorial waters and EEZ. Malaysia should not be considering China made products aside from the 4 LMS that was shoved down the throats of the RMN chiefs. China is rogue nation, a bully to its regional neighbors when it wants to.
Taib - “aside from the 4 LMS that was shoved down the throats of the RMN chiefs”
Actually it wasn’t “shoved”. It was politically expedient during that period to buy from China and the RMN was desperate for new hulls; from anywhere as long as they were delivered and as long as certain conditions were met.
In a perfect world should we have bought them : an unequivocal no.
We didn’t get value for money; we ended up with a class of just 4 and fully equipping them with Chinese gear will increase the RMN’s support footprint. Sure; they don’t improve the RMN’s warfighting capabilities (hopefully the 2nd batch do) but they improve it ability to conduct day to day peacetime commitments.
The good thing about them is they are a big improvement in terms of availability, range, endurance and sea keeping over the FACs. Should we buy anymore : no.
Taib - “The likely targets of the UAV searches will be Chinese ships skulking in Malaysian territorial waters and EEZ”
I get the point you’re making but no. If detecting Chinese ships was our main priority; we’d order more radars and ESM. Detecting Chinese ships is not the issue as the radars in the reefs gives us pretty decent coverage. The UASs are intended for a variety of purposes in a larger operational context.
Harap module kontena untuk LMS ambil dari sumber lain..
Dan sistem senjata module boleh standalone..
Power supply shj dari LMS
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No one will sell us any military grade stuff to be installed on a China made warship
@Taib
UAS is just for surveillance purposes. It cannot be armed and target anything so no point for China to jam it or tamper it. I see no reason why for we cannot use China equipment if the price is affordable and suits the purpose.