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MINSK, 10 February (BelTA) – Belarusian scientists are planning to launch the manufacture of electric engines for compact unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in 2015, Yuri Yatsyna, head of the R&D center BAK and Technologies of the Physics Technology Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, said at the press conference “Innovative technologies: unmanned aircraft complexes” on 10 February, BelTA has learned.

“We are planning to use 75% of Belarusian-made parts to produce small unmanned aircraft complexes. We import only cameras, engines, batteries, and computers. In H1 2015 we are planning to design our own electric engines. By the end of the year we are going to launch the batch production of these engines,” Yuri Yatsyna said.

At present Belarusian drones are equipped with Chinese engines. “We have used German and Italian models before. We would like to raise the security of such engines. Therefore, we will design our own model which parameters will satisfy us,” the head of the R&D center stressed.

Belarusian specialists operate two drones made by the R&D center BAK and Technologies, six vehicles are used abroad. “The statistics will change this year, but I cannot say that there will be more our vehicles in Belarus than abroad,” Yuri Yatsyna said. In his words, specialists of the center are working on an export contract to assemble four compact drones.

The R&D center BAK and Technologies was established in 2011 as part of the Belarusian innovative development program. The first phase of the facility to produce small-range unmanned aircraft complexes was launched in 2012. “This year we will launch the second phase of the workshop to make unmanned aircraft complexes with the operational range of up to 290km. The production capacity allows producing more than ten small-range unmanned aircraft complexes. The introduction of the second phase will help us manufacture 5-10 long-range unmanned aircraft complexes per year,” Yuri Yatsyna said.

The R&D center BAK and Technologies of the Physics Technology Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus is the CIS only enterprise certified to batch produce unmanned aerial vehicles of its own design. The center can develop and batch produce several kinds of merchandise, including compact unmanned aerial vehicles with the operational range of 25km and 50km, an environmental monitoring UAV based on a dirigible, the Burevestnik UAV as well as photosystems for UAVs and automatic control systems.