The Russian industry considers developing heavy drones to control the border in Arctic regions, First Deputy Director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), Border Guard Service Head Vladimir Kulishov told TASS on Thursday, EDNews.net reports citing TASS.

"In the interests of carrying out border guard activity in remote Arctic areas and Far Eastern seas, medium- and heavy-class drones will be in demand in the medium-term perspective as they ensure the transmission of data on the border situation to large distances and are less dependent on weather conditions," he said in an interview with TASS timed for Russia’s Border Guards Day celebrated on May 28.

"In view of this, industrial enterprises are now exploring the possibility of manufacturing for us rotary-wing unmanned aircraft systems capable of taking off and landing both on aviation-capable border guard patrol vessels and on the coast," he said.

Unmanned aircraft systems are already available in Russia, the Border Guard Service head said. "Domestically-produced unmanned aircraft systems are actively used in protecting the state border, along with mobile tethered video surveillance aerostat systems designated for distant control of remote border sections and coordination of border patrols," he said.

Also, in 2019 the border guard troops received new multicopters capable of hovering over the designated terrain and operating both day and night, the Border Guard Service chief said.

"The use of drones helps considerably boost the efficiency of protecting the state border in hard-to-access and remote areas and also in places of active illegal activity," he stressed.