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Russian Military UAV Used in Ukraine Depends on Foreign Parts
By Spencer Faragasso
May 11, 2022
Russia is well known to depend on foreign goods for its military equipment and industries.
Recent Ukrainian social media reports illustrate the large fraction of foreign goods in Russia’s
Orlan-10, a mid-range, gasoline-engine, propellor-driven reconnaissance unmanned aerial
vehicle (UAV) widely used by Russian military forces to pinpoint Ukrainian civilian and military
targets for artillery strikes.
Official Russian sources claim that the Orlan-10 is a “Russian made” UAV, first developed in
2010 by the Russian state-owned firm Special Technology Center (STC) and since used in
military action in Syria and Ukraine. Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,
however, several Ukrainian social media reports offer a far different narrative. Information on
the internal components in recovered or damaged Orlan-10 UAV aircraft are analyzed here,
identifying several Western brand components and parts. This information indicates that
Russia is highly dependent on sourcing foreign commodities to produce this weapon system
vital to Russia’s devastating artillery barrages against military and civilian targets.
The impact of Western sanctions will make sourcing these commodities increasingly difficult for
Russia. As a result, the stock of operable vehicles and spare parts would be expected to slowly
diminish and force Russia to rely more on Russian-made goods or from other sources.
Figure 1. A screenshot from a demonstration video of an Orlan-10 UAV on its launch catapult.
