Details of Border Guard Plans, UAV, Boats From Moscow Security Technology Show

There were details of an unmanned aerial vehicle, fast patrol boats and plans for the use of technical equipment by Russia’s border guards in a series of reports by the corporate-owned Russian military news agency Interfax-AVN website on 2 November from the Interpolitex 2007 security technology exhibition in Moscow.

At the show, Maj-Gen Valeriy Panchenko, chief of the technical development service in the Border Guard Service (organizationally under Russia’s Federal Security Service, FSB), spoke about measures to provide automated technical surveillance along the main sections of the border, including the use of UAVs.

In 2006, he said, test and evaluation work began on the creation of technical surveillance systems on the Caspian and Baltic Seas, as well as the Sea of Azov. This year, such work began in respect of similar systems for Russia’s Far East, along the coast of the Sea of Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea, as well as along the Arctic coast of the Barents and the White Sea. Work is also actively under way on an automated surveillance system for the Russian- Kazakh border, Panchenko added.

On the use of UAVs, he said that their test “launches” began back in 2005 along Russia’s North Caucasus border, and that recommendations are now being drawn up on their use along the main sections of the state border. Those in use to guard the border, he said, weigh in at 100 kg, have a range of up to 40 km and can transmit video in real time. No other details were supplied.

Dozor-2 UAV

The Dozor-2 multipurpose UAV system, which was exhibited at the show, can be put to use by the armed forces, the Internal Troops or the FSB, AVN said in a second report from the show [0740 gmt].

“In its standard form, the Dozor-2 complex, which is designed to carry out aerial surveillance over facilities and areas as well as to gather and process the information it obtains, consists of three unmanned aerial vehicles and a mobile control centre, which can be accommodated in any motor vehicle,” AVN said.

“The standard complex has a digital photographic camera, a forward-view and side-view video camera, a short-range and long- range thermal imager, and an object recognition system. Instead of the standard equipment, any equipment which weighs up to 8 kg can be installed on the UAV at the request of the client,” the report added.

Photographic, video and other information can either be radioed back or stored on the UAV’s hard drive, its capacity 30 hours’ worth of recording. The UAV is deployed in 30 minutes, a company representative told AVN at the show.

According to him, the border guards have already asked for the UAV to be tested at one of their exercises; the plan is for the company, Tranzas Electronic Systems, to provide several UAVs to carry out surveillance over a sector. Hopefully, a contract will follow. One, with a Russian oil company, has already been signed, for several such systems to be used in pipeline surveillance.

Fast patrol boats

Several high-speed sea boats “developed to orders placed by Russia’s security agencies” were exhibited at the show by the Skorostnoy Flot concern, AVN said in a third report [1341 gmt].

One, a high-speed multipurpose boat, the Boyets (a model at the show), is now under construction, to be handed over to the border guards by the end of this year, the company’s deputy director said. Designed to patrol rivers, reservoirs, lakes and the sea coast, the boat’s displacement is 6.7 tonnes, speed up to 50 knots and crew two.

Also ready for series production is the Delfin hydrofoil boat. Also designed for patrol service, the boat’s displacement is 3.1 tonnes, speed up to 35 knots and range up to 200 miles. It is designed for day-time operation in low to moderate seas (“up to Sea State 3″).

The company’s prospective developments include the Sokzhoy-S interceptor boat, described as “air-cavern” and based on the Project 14230 Sokzhoy patrol boat. Its displacement is 144.9 tonnes, speed 40 knots, range 800 miles and crew 16. The design is for use by the border guards.

The Skorostnoy Flot [Speed Fleet] group of companies consists of the Nizhniy Novgorod-based Alekseyev TsKB [Central Design Bureau] and Volga shipyard, the St Petersburg-based Redan and Zvezda companies, the Svir shipyard [Leningrad Region] and the Moscow- based Neptun TsKB, AVN notes.

Originally published by Interfax-AVN military news agency website, Moscow, in Russian 1101 02 Nov 07.

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