Sirius

Sirius is a Russian medium-altitude long-endurance reconnaissance-strike UAV built by Kronstadt Group , the St Petersburg manufacturer behind the single-engine Orion (Inokhodets) that has been the closest Russian counterpart to the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper. Where the Orion sits roughly in the Predator weight class, Sirius scales the platform up — twin turboprop engines, a heavier airframe, and a larger payload — to push Russian MALE capability into the bracket occupied by the MQ-9 Reaper and the Turkish Akinci. The type was first shown in mockup form in the late 2010s and rolled out as a flying prototype around 2022.

The move from one engine to two is the system’s defining technical change. Twin turboprops give Sirius a higher service ceiling and a substantially greater takeoff weight than its predecessor; Russian sources cite a maximum payload of roughly one tonne. The aircraft is built around an electro-optical / infrared turret under the nose and a synthetic-aperture radar pod, with provisions for signals-intelligence and additional sensor packages along the centreline. SATCOM hardware in a dorsal hump enables beyond-line-of-sight operation — the capability gap that has historically constrained Russian armed UAV missions to within radio horizon of a ground station. Multiple underwing hardpoints carry guided bombs and the family of small UAB and Kh-class munitions that already arm the Orion-E.

Sirius is being developed under a Russian Ministry of Defence contract; deployed numbers, basing, and squadron assignment are not in the public record. Kronstadt opened a dedicated production facility at Dubna outside Moscow in 2021 to industrialise the Orion family and the larger types behind it, and Sirius is one of the platforms that line is meant to deliver. The system has not been confirmed in combat use in Ukraine, in contrast to the smaller Orion, which has been employed there. International marketing has centred on a reconnaissance-only variant offered alongside the strike configuration.

Within the Russian unmanned-aviation portfolio, Sirius sits between the Orion and the heavier, jet-powered S-70 Okhotnik built by Sukhoi. It is the platform Kronstadt expects to carry Russian MALE capability through the next decade — a domestic answer to the proliferation of Western and Turkish reconnaissance-strike UAVs that the Orion alone cannot match on payload or endurance.