August 8, 2024: A problem Russia suffers from is their inability to develop and produce weapons and equipment that match or surpass what the West has. From 2015 to early 2022 Russian defense production has been crippled by detailed and regularly updated sanctions based on continuing searches for smuggled Western parts. An example of this was Orlan-10 UAV, whose production should have been shut down by 2016 sanctions but wasn’t. Introduced in 2011, Orlan-10 is one of few UAVs that Russia developed locally, and that included a special version for functioning in Arctic environments. Orlan-10 is propeller-driven, weighs about 15 kilograms and can carry a payload of up to 6 kilograms of various kinds of recon equipment, including infrared cameras, or an array of multiple cameras used for creating 3-dimensional maps. Its 95-octane gasoline-powered engine provides a cruise speed of 90 to 150 kilometers an hour, a service ceiling of about 5,000 meters, and a flight endurance of 18 hours. Together with control and launch equipment, the Orlan-10 costs about half a million dollars. The aircraft is launched by a portable folding catapult and lands by shutting down the engine and deploying a parachute. Russia has produced over a thousand Orlans so far and they continue to be produced despite the difficulty in obtaining some electronic components.

Oran-10s required several Western electronic boards and chips that were not manufactured in Russia and had to be imported. By 2017 it was clear that Russia was not simply using existing stockpiles of now banned components to build new Oran-10s. This was a major problem because Orlan-10 was a key observation asset as it could spot targets for Russian artillery or rocket fire. Oran-10 can operate high enough to be safe from rifle or machine-gun fire and it is difficult for a lightweight anti-aircraft missile like Stinger to hit. At night it is even less vulnerable to ground fire.

In Ukraine some Orlan-10s continued to be shot down or crash because of equipment failure. Their wreckage was examined for the presence of banned components and these items were still there. The banned items were common, not custom-manufactured for Orlan-10s. There were dozens of distributors you could order from. Government efforts to sort out which distributors were selling the Oran parts to a firm with a link to Russia had come up empty.

Russian forces have lost over a hundred Orlans in Ukraine so far and have replaced these losses because Orlan-10 is their principal means of spotting targets for Russian artillery. Orlan-10s entered service in 2012 and were used in Ukraine and Syria before 2022. Russia uses all this combat experience to help export sales of Orlan-10s and its new electronic warfare features.

In 2016 Russia introduced a new accessory for Orlan-10s which turns them into the equivalent of a cell phone tower, or a cell phone tower detector and jammer. Troops with the proper equipment and software can use an Orlan-10 to send and receive text, voice and images, including video) This system works with another Orlan-10 accessory, the RB-341V, that will precisely locate cell phone towers and can also jam those within six kilometers. Locating the towers is important because troops on the ground can then go destroy or capture the equipment. Artillery or airstrikes can, with an accurate location, destroy the cell phone gear remotely.

In 2020 Russia introduced a larger version of Orlan-10, the Orlan-30, which will eventually replace existing Orlan-10s. Orlan-30 weighs 40 kg and can stay in the air for eight hours per sortie by using an internal combustion engine similar to the one used in the Orlan-10. Operating ceiling is 4,000 meters and speed varies between 90 and 150 kilometers an hour.

Max payload is six kg and basic equipment includes a video camera for navigation, a digital imager to find targets in day or night or in bad weather, and a fire control video camera with a laser designation to pinpoint the location of a target. An Orlan-30 system comes in four cargo containers and consists of two Orlan-30s, a launching catapult, and a ground control station where the operator sits and flies the Orlan-30 remotely. The operator also distributes target information obtained by his Orlan-30 to other army units that can require it, like artillery batteries or battalions needing target locations and descriptions of the targets.