Russian Post and Skolkovo will send drones to the fields

The BAS Consortium, created by the Russian Post and Skolkovo, intends to test heavy unmanned aerial vehicles for the needs of agriculture and proposes to establish an experimental legal regime for this. The Krasnodar, Altai, Rostov, Belgorod, Samara and Novosibirsk regions and Tatarstan have been identified as regions for their testing.

The purpose of the test program is to obtain permission to operate drones with a take-off weight of more than 30 kg for the treatment of crops with fertilizers and plant protection products.

It’s proposed to establish an experimental mode for three years, the program will involve 60 drones that will process 490 thousand hectares of land. 80 enterprises will be able to participate in testing.

Currently, it’s planned to prepare a national project for the development of the production of drones, within the framework of which it’s planned to provide grants through the Technological Development Agency for the development of design documentation for components necessary for the mass production of unmanned aerial vehicles.