Soviet Russian Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Yefim Gordon
Paperback: 128 pages
Publisher: Midland Publishing (16 Feb 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 185[zasłonięte]1938
ISBN-13: 978[zasłonięte][zasłonięte]78019

While Soviet combat aircraft have received extensive coverage, the many unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) developed in the Soviet Union and, more recently Russia, remain unsung. Nevertheless, this is a subject deserving attention. The first Soviet UAV to find large-scale use was the La-17 developed by the Lavochkin OKB, a fighter maker of World War 2 fame; it came in both target drone and reconnaissance versions. The Tupolev OKB, best known for its heavy bombers and commercial aircraft, also had a line of UAVs of varying size. The first of these was the Tu-123 Yastreb which started life as a heavy cruise missile but evolved into a supersonic unmanned spyplane; the book also describes the Tu-141 Strizh (Swift), which again came in recce and target versions, the Tu-243 Reys (Flight) and the latest Tu-300 reconnaissance/strike UAV. The Yakovlev OKB's unmanned aircraft are also described, including the Pchela (BEE) surveillance UAV which has seen operational use in the Chechen wars: mention is also made of UAVs and drones developed by such companies as Strela and the Moscow Aviation institute. The book is richly illustrated with colour and black and white photographs, including many that have never been published before, plus line drawings.