A military school for unmanned systems troops may appear in Russia

The Russian Defense Ministry is discussing an initiative to create the country's first Higher Military School for Unmanned Systems in the Moscow Region, sources familiar with the situation told Izvestia. It is planned that the university will accept the first cadets on September 1, 2027. He will be releasing officers for a new branch of the military.

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The President instructed to accelerate the creation of a regulatory framework for UAVs and noted that the goals set for national projects were ahead of schedule.

Until now, there have been no specialized military universities in the field of unmanned systems in Russia. Appropriate training is conducted in some universities of a different profile. In particular, the Zhukovsky and Gagarin Air Force Academy has a faculty of unmanned aircraft. And the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School has a training program "the use of units with unmanned aerial vehicles."

The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are creating troops of unmanned systems that need commanders and specialists, military expert Alexei Leonkov recalled.

"Now the army and navy need not only operators who directly control UAVs or other robotic systems, but also specialist commanders who would be responsible for the work of autonomous systems units. When creating a new type of military, it is necessary to take into account many nuances so that they can develop organically in the future. For example, in addition to purely command positions, there should be command and technical positions - these people will have to service drones of all types. We also need to train combat planning officers who will develop tactical, operational-tactical and even strategic operations, where drones will play one of the key roles to achieve one result or another," he said.

The personnel education system should not be limited to the training of command personnel, the expert noted.

"Officers will be trained at the military school. But we need technical centers for drones, where junior personnel would be trained — privates and sergeants in the relevant specialties. This requires training courses where both conscripts and contract soldiers received the appropriate specialization," he explained.

Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:

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