Lofty goals: civilian drones will be actively used starting in 2026

The start of operation of unmanned aerial vehicles is scheduled for March 2026. This was stated by Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Vitaly Saveliev at the International Forum of Digital Technologies in the field of transport and logistics "Digital Transportation 2025". In which areas of civilian activity drones and other details will be in demand, see the Izvestia article.

The use of UAVs for civilian purposes: agriculture and services "on the wings"

A number of unmanned systems are already being developed and are operating in Russia in logistics and aviation, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Saveliev said on the sidelines of the International Forum of Digital Technologies in the Field of Transport and Logistics "Digital Transportation 2025". Among the implemented projects is the Digital Sky concept, developed specifically for UAVs, which, according to the Deputy Prime Minister, not every country can afford.

— This is the so-called "H-class Sky", which allows drones to operate more successfully in a simplified form. Few countries can afford it, and Russia is a leader in opening up this space to drones," Saveliev said.

According to him, Russian Railways and Aeroflot continue to work in cooperation with leading companies and are developing materials that will make it possible to make serious progress and discoveries in the foreseeable future.

The Deputy Prime Minister announced that from March next year, the identification of drones will be ubiquitous — today the ERA-GLONASS platform is used for this purpose — and this will expand the possibilities of using drones in the national economy and in the provision of services, which is planned to be implemented as early as March 2026.

Identification of drones

Alexey Raikevich, the head of GLONASS JSC, told the Izvestia studio at the WEF that the creation of a unified identification system for civilian unmanned aircraft was the logical decision of the Russian Ministry of Transport, which was entrusted with this task.

— Today, there are over 13 million connected vehicles on the platform: more than 12.9 million on the emergency warning platform, and over half a million more on the monitoring service for public transport, forestry equipment, dangerous goods transportation, and small aircraft in all regions of Russia. When we offer a single identification system based on our platform, we rely on the customer experience and customer service that we have," said Rajkevich.

According to him, in the future it will be extended to drones in other environments — on land and water. Thus, 100,000 representatives of the Russian timber industry have already been connected to the platform.

Rajkevich stressed that a regulatory framework is being formed, according to which, from March 1 next year, the connection of drones to the platform will begin on an industrial scale.

— When we connected, for example, passenger transport and the forestry complex, it ensured transparency in these industries. Transparency is very important for this new industry, for drones, for aviation drones, because we understand that in the hands of an attacker, a drone drone turns into a formidable weapon. There is a certain control aspect here, and most importantly, a certain prerequisite for lifting restrictions in the regions on the use of drones, a prerequisite for facilitating bureaucratic procedures in this area," said the head of the company.

He noted that the current time for approval and the subsequent result of aerial photography is often a month. At the same time, business processes dictate different speeds, since results are needed immediately. This means that the development of a young industry is being held back. Alexey Raikevich expressed hope that the unified identification system, which has already been technically created, will help to remove regional restrictions and ease bureaucracy.

—In fact, ERA-GLONASS, with objective data from the state system, is a digital barometer of the technological maturity of drones," Raikevich said.

The head of GLONASS JSC added that the system will allow tracking attempts to reprogram or intercept control of drones, as well as identify vulnerabilities and signal them to manufacturers.

According to him, drones connected to the Internet can be subject to cyber attacks, so it is important to learn how to centrally protect them even before mass industrial use.

Mass flight

Drones, with their wide range of capabilities, are finding new and unexpected applications in various spheres of life. In medicine, they can significantly improve delivery processes by providing fast transportation of medicines and donated blood to remote areas, as well as during emergencies. In ecology, drones play an important role in monitoring nature, protecting rare species of animals and plants, and conducting environmental research.

Today, drones are actively used not only in agricultural technologies, for example, for growing and harvesting crops, but also in logistics, ecosystem and environmental monitoring. Dmitry Gachko, founder of the ITG Corporation and the IT PARK RUS technology Park, told Izvestia about this in an interview.

As for the profession of a drone operator, modern technological trends are significantly changing the requirements for this specialist. One of the main directions of development will be the transition from simple remote control to more complex tasks related to automated mission execution, where the operator will give complex commands, and human intervention will be required only in emergency cases. This will allow operators to control a much larger number of drones at the same time.

Who trains specialists in the operation and maintenance of unmanned vehicles and how, Izvestia wrote in the article "On the wings of a drone: how UAV operators are trained in Russia"