The government may submit a national project on drones in May

© Timur Khanov/PG

In the second quarter of the year, the Government will present two important national projects – on machine tool building and the development of unmanned aircraft in Russia. This was stated by First Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Vasily Osmakov at a meeting of the Duma Committee on Industry and Trade.

As Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin said earlier, the Government’s report for last year will be heard at the plenary week from March 21 to March 23, the exact date will be determined later.

Osmakov clarified that the national project concerning machine tool building is an updated federal project “Development of production of means of production.” Within its framework, it is planned to implement the initiatives of the head of state, voiced in the Address, on tax preferences for buyers of domestic equipment.

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“This alone should to a large extent turn the market towards Russian equipment – we must support this through the Industrial Development Fund, various grants. The presentation of this project is tentatively March-April,” said the first deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

The second national project concerns unmanned aerial systems and is “an attempt to close the identified critical gaps.” According to Osmakov, this is a big and very interesting work, since there is a stereotype that Russia is lagging behind in the drone race.

“This is absolutely not true. Because we have a wide variety of drones produced, and quite a lot of them completely on the Russian component base,” he said.

The First Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade added that in fact the national project is aimed more at “opening markets for Russian manufacturers.” “In May, a final meeting of the president on this topic is scheduled, where the national project will be demonstrated,” Osmakov concluded.