‘Welcome’ to Ukraine.. Russia is deploying its latest Privet-82 suicide drone in Ukraine

The Russian Armed Forces’ newest drone, the Privet-82 (“Hello-82” or “Hello”), has successfully passed tests during its combat deployment in Ukraine.

“The Privet-82 aircraft passed flight tests on the territory of the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics in the Special Military Operation Zone. The tests examined flight range, radio channel and the drone’s resistance to local electronic warfare systems. The air vehicle was shown to battalion representatives from the Cascade and East operational/tactical combat formations, the Russian Guard and the Wagner PMC. Work is under way to equip the drones with payloads and prepare them for the first combat action that will actually take place in the coming days, Oko Design Bureau told the government-owned TASS news agency on Friday.

To date, 12 Privet-82 suicide drones are in the zone of special military operation in Ukraine, the design bureau said.

“We are in constant contact with the units that received our drones,” he said.

The combat drone has a range of 30 km, can accelerate to 140 km per hour and carry 5.5 kg.

Reconnaissance version of Privet-82

He added that the specialists of the Oko Design Bureau also tested the Privet-82 drone modified to perform reconnaissance missions.

“In the area of ​​the military special operation, we demonstrated and tested our drone in reconnaissance configuration. We received good input and recommendations for tuning the drone. It is necessary to make a slight modification to the camera installed on the reconnaissance aircraft, and then it will go into mass production,” Oko’s design bureau said.

He said that the Privet-82 drone in its reconnaissance modification will boast an extended flight time of up to an hour and a half.