Russia has developed a handheld reconnaissance drone grenade-launcher to provide real-time surveillance and intelligence, the Russian website Tass reports.
The Russian military has fallen behind the U.S. on the drone front but continues to make inroads. The Kremlin used drones during the war in Eastern Ukraine to enhance Russian-allied forces’ ability to target opposition more accurately.
This new system prepares the drone for launch, "within a period of 5 seconds to 3 minutes, depending on the time of preparing a flight program in cases when other similar drones require much more time for accomplishing the mission," Tass reports.
Alexander Yakunin, CEO of the United Instrument Manufacturing Corporation, in December of 2016 told TASS "the Russian Army may get weapons against swarms of attack mini-drones in two years."
He added: "Powerful types of such hardware with strike capabilities may become operational in the Russian Army within four years, while simpler systems may appear already in two years. Serious potential has been accumulated and real prototypes of these weapons have been created. We have demonstrated their capabilities and the results are more than convincing."
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.