Mikhail Mishustin: “In the next seven years, we plan to almost double the volume of the Russian market for heavy and medium-lift drones. We are going to reach our goals not only by developing innovative devices, but also, which is very important, by expanding relevant services that are much sought-after by consumers.”
Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks:
Mikhail Mishustin holds strategic session on unmanned aircraft system development
Good afternoon, colleagues,
At today’s strategic session, we will discuss a very important matter, the creation of a sector to manufacture and use autonomous aircraft.
This issue was discussed in detail at a meeting with the President this spring.
According to the President’s instructions, we adopted a relevant strategy for the development of this important new sector in May. A national project has been designed and endorsed. The high status of the document shows how important this area is, especially today, against the backdrop of the rapid development of technology, including artificial intelligence, digital transformation, robotics and many other important areas of technological development.
The Russian Federation already has done a certain amount of groundwork.
The energy sector, construction and agriculture are the leaders in terms of using drones for civil purposes. Such devices are also used in geodesy and cartography. Autonomous technology is gradually being tested in related industries such as automobile transport and river and sea navigation.
Within the next few years, we will have to accomplish several goals that are important to the state, from creating the relevant industry, software, and infrastructure, and maintaining demand for products and services, including state and civilian orders from agencies, regions, and public companies, to developing scientific and technological competences, and a design and engineering school.
There are currently tens of thousands of light drones. But they are still mostly made by tech enthusiasts. We need to systematise and increase existing production capacities. During the next seven years, we are planning to double the size of the Russian market for heavy and medium class craft.
We hope to achieve these goals not only by creating innovative equipment but also, importantly, by expanding the services that can use this equipment and that are in demand, from cargo shipping to remote locations to mitigating emergencies and disasters, and for a number of other important jobs. At the same time, we will triple the share of Russian-made products to 70 percent, something we discussed in detail.
We see that the use of drones increases the operational efficiency of businesses. In agriculture, for example, labour productivity doubles when crops are treated with protectants. In the energy sector, the risk of accidents has been reduced by 87 percent due to the monitoring of power lines; which is now five times faster. In the fuel sector, the costs for aircraft patrolling gas pipelines have been reduced by 66 percent and the time for this, by 70 percent. There are similar examples for a number of other sectors, including construction, cartography, land inventory, geological exploration, environmental surveillance, and many other areas.
Of course, we need a systematic approach that will enable Russia to carve out a competitive niche in this promising market. The President has emphasised that we must be one step ahead of our competitors in areas like unmanned aerial vehicles, and I believe we have the opportunity for this. In expanding the sector, we will create the infrastructure for facilitating flights on Russian territory, in our common airspace. We will expand the network of science and production centres that will primarily test and implement advanced solutions in this field. This network will bring unrelated enterprises together into cost-effective cooperation.
Designers, manufacturers, and operators will be able to use these digital solutions. We are also expecting to train over 1 million specialists.
Colleagues,
New technologies will provide new impetus to restructuring the economy, including the fuel and energy sector, the agro-industrial sector, and the equipment manufacturing industry, and technology will promote more cost-effective performance.
It is very important to involve our young people in this sphere. They are very interested in these advanced and promising technologies.
Today, we will discuss measures to develop UAVs in great detail. The
emergence of high-tech sectors like this is important to the economy and the
people. This will make it possible to establish new services and upgrade
existing ones. And just as important, they will make many services more
affordable.
