What you are looking at is a patent filed with the Russian Federal Service for Intellectual Property (an equivalent of USPTO) by Russian arms manufacturer Almaz-Antey in 2018 that feels somewhat like a weapon straight out Iron Sky (2012, Entertainment One). It is a drone that was apparently designed around a conventional assault rifle which is kind of wacky if you ask me. We all know how long a clip lasts and so… like, why would a presumably combat drone limit itself with 30-something rounds? Perhaps, it could accept drum magazine? It possibly could.
Anyways, it is not like the standard banana-shaped magazine depicted in proposed aircraft is any less conspicuous, right? I can’t help but to think it looks like a weapon cooked up by guerrilla fighters. I mean, seriously, a drone that uses an existing weapon? Or an existing assault rifle for that matter? That’s just weird. This unnamed concept death from the sky has a minimal airframe that resembles a fixed wing aircraft, or a “canard” aircraft to be exact where it proposed to have a set of forewing placed forward of the vertical stabilizers-equipped main wing.
Details are virtually non-existence with this patent filing (which is kind of not a surprise because, Russia). Not only that. It appears that propulsion is non-existence too in this proposed weaponized drone. It is not clear what rifle it have nested inside the bi-plane-like fuselage, but it sure looks like a variant of Kalashnikov AK-47. While I may joke about it, this may actually turn out to be a nightmare for everyone who are on the ground.
It suddenly occurs to me that, the Russia arms maker may have dreamed of a drone that could leverage on regular assault to send hails of leads onto enemies below, far inside the front line. The nightmare comes with the fact that I may be deployed by any soldier, anytime, anywhere. Oh, I am very sure this thing isn’t going to return. I could be wrong, though.
Almaz-Antey’s proposition wasn’t the last of the bizarre and terror-inducing weapon to come out of Mother Russia. Maker of AK-47 has recently revealed plans to make Kamikaze drones – a weapon that pretty much blurs the line between a combat aircraft and a cruise missile and a reminder of the horrific Japanese strategy towards the end of WWII.
Images: Almaz-Antey/Federal Service for Intellectual Property.
Source: Futurism.