Orlan-10 / Orlan-30
The eyes of Russian artillery — the war's most ubiquitous reconnaissance drone, produced and expended in the thousands.
Record
Operators
Battlefield role
Artillery spotting, battle-damage assessment and target-hunting for the reconnaissance-strike loop that pairs it with Lancet and guided artillery; the Orlan-30 adds laser designation for precision rounds.
Strengths
Cheap enough to lose in quantity without operational cost; catapult launch and parachute recovery need no infrastructure; long endurance at altitudes awkward for short-range air defence; the airframe base for electronic-warfare payload variants.
Limitations
Unarmed and slow; wreck analyses have repeatedly documented dependence on sanctioned Western commercial components, making its supply chain a standing sanctions-enforcement target; jammable links.
Visual identification
Small grey monoplane of roughly three-metre span with a front-mounted piston propeller, straight unswept wing and V-tail; launched from a folding catapult rail, recovered by parachute.
Documented conflict use
In documented use since the Donbas war and ubiquitous throughout the full-scale invasion; downed airframes are among the most commonly documented Russian equipment losses, and their recovered components underpin much of the public sanctions-evasion reporting.
Branch & service operators
- Ground ForcesDocumented