Simulators to strike drones

Kronshtadt began as the aviation side of Transas, a St Petersburg company that was Russia’s leading maker of flight simulators and cockpit equipment. In 2015 Transas sold its aviation businesses to the Sistema conglomerate, and the group took the name Kronshtadt; it was still called Transas in some contexts until 2017. In 2016 it sold its flight-instrument business to the Ramenskoye avionics bureau, keeping simulators and drones, the business on which it had chosen to bet.

The Orion

That bet was the Orion, developed from 2011 under the Defence Ministry’s Inokhodets programme. It first flew in May 2016 and has been described as the first MALE drone fully developed in Russia from domestic components. According to Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu it was tested on strike missions in Syria in 2019, and the ministry received the first batch for trial operation in 2020. Over Ukraine in 2022 it was filmed making strikes on vehicles, and by December 2025 nine had been lost in combat.

Dubna, sanctions and exports

To build it in quantity Kronshtadt erected a 45,000 square metre plant at Dubna near Moscow, due to open in November 2021 and planned to employ about 1,500. Britain sanctioned the company in 2022, Sistema withdrew in 2023, and on 28 May 2025 the Dubna factory was hit by Ukrainian drones. The larger Sirius flew in August 2023, and the Orion-E found export buyers, with Ethiopia receiving a system in January 2026.

المصانع

• Dubna plant · Dubna, Moscow Oblast — Serial drone factory; hit by Ukrainian drones 28 May 2025