Сluster of unmanned aircraft will be created in Bashkiria

Yesterday, within the framework of the Investment Hour session, an agreement of intent was signed to create a cluster of unmanned aviation in Bashkortostan. The anchor enterprise of the cluster will be the Geoscan Group of Companies.

Rustem Davletov, director of the Center for Strategic Development of the Republic (overseeing the implementation of the project), said that it is planned to organize new production facilities for the production of units and assemblies, as well as to form the appropriate infrastructure (data center, test site, charging stations, logistics routes).

In addition to Geoscan, the Hover Design Bureau, a manufacturer of unmanned flying drones-taxis, Aeroglobe LLC, a manufacturer of heavy drones and agro drones, the Zhukovsky National Research Center, and the Ufa State Aviation Technical University will operate in the new cluster.

"This is an unprecedented and very interesting project for Bashkortostan," Radiy Khabirov stressed. "We have set an ambitious task that can only be solved by joint efforts based on the cluster approach".

At the first stage, the project involves using private investments of 250 million rubles. In 2021, 20 jobs will be created within its framework.

According to Pavel Stepanov, Deputy General Director of Geoscan-Ufa LLC, the potential for further development and involving various specialists is very wide. Uncrewed aerial vehicles are relevant for the oil and gas sector, the energy complex, cadastral work, agriculture, and forestry.

Rostelecom and Kumertau Aviation Production Enterprise will also be the cluster's partners.

The total investment in the development of the cluster until 2024 is estimated at 2 billion rubles. The first developments will be launched in 2022, and already in 2023, a test site and industrial uncrewed aerial vehicles will appear.

Thus, the Hover company will specialize in manufacturing taxi drones with a carrying capacity of up to 300 kg. The Airglobe company will specialize in the production of drones for the needs of agriculture.

As a support measure, the Investment Hour session participants approved the project's inclusion in the list of priority ones with tax incentives. Investors will also be reimbursed for part of building construction costs and the creation of engineering infrastructure.

Another project planned to be implemented within the aviation cluster is creating an unmanned helicopter complex with a maximum take-off weight of 200 kg at KumAPP (Kumertau Aviation Production Enterprise). It was presented by Mikhail Rybakov, Executive Director for Production of the Russian Helicopters holding.

According to Nikolay Frolov, managing director of the Kumertau Aviation Production Enterprise, the first copy of the helicopter was demonstrated at the International Aviation and Space Salon MAKS-2021, and by the end of 2021, it will be certified. The new equipment will allow loading the free production facilities of KumAPP. The volume of investments in the project will amount to 2.3 billion rubles.