In the middle of this year, Montenegro should sign an agreement with the Slovenian company C-Astral Aerospace on the purchase of a total of two Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) type "Belin-V" with six drones intended for reconnaissance, surveillance and data collection at the military base. on a tactile level.
They will be the first unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that will be put into operational use by the Army of Montenegro, and will enable it to have real-time monitoring of events in certain parts of the territory at a distance of up to 40 kilometers from the operator who will control these remotely controlled drones.
Modern armies today are literally unimaginable without the wide use of unmanned aerial vehicles of various types, sizes and purposes, as drones are used both for terrain reconnaissance and intelligence gathering, search and rescue, target marking, correction of artillery fire, but also direct attack on opposing forces. either by the weapons carried by the drone itself, or by a kamikaze strike by the BPL itself, which is equipped with an explosive charge of different strength and size.
The Ministry of Defense of Montenegro told "Vijesti" that at the end of August last year, they signed an agreement on cooperation in the field of military reconnaissance and aerial surveillance with the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Slovenia, based on the BELIN unmanned aerial systems. This system, produced by the Slovenian company C-Astral Aerospace, consists of Bramor C4EYE type unmanned aerial vehicles, ground control stations, mobile controllers, catapult-launch ramps, radio stations and special radio communication antennas for the connection between the ground control station and the drone in the air. Bramor C4EYE aircraft have a particularly efficient aerodynamic configuration, the so-called a flying wing without tail surfaces, and they are driven by an electric motor via an assembly thrust propeller. The aircraft made of carbon fiber has a wingspan of 2,3 meters, is 96 centimeters long and weighs 4,4 kilograms. The electric drive, the aerodynamic shape and the material from which it is made make this BPL hard to see and challenging to detect and possibly shoot down by the opponent.
The Bramor C4EYE type aircraft is equipped with gyroscopically stabilized optical and thermal sensors with which it can monitor the terrain during the day and at night, transmitting the image in real time to the operators who control it from the ground. The daytime optical and nighttime thermal imaging cameras of this BPL allow a person to be spotted with it during the day at a distance of 5 kilometers from the drone and to be accurately identified at a distance of 1,5 kilometers. The detection distance, that is, the precise identification of the vehicle during the day is 20 kilometers and 3 kilometers. At night, the thermal camera detects a vehicle at a distance of 1,15 kilometers, and a person at 370 meters. If desired, the aircraft can be equipped with a module for laser marking of targets, which turns this drone into a very useful tool for assisting the artillery or air force. The aircraft can stay in the air for up to 3 hours, flies at a speed of up to 150 kilometers per hour, and operates at a maximum distance of 40 kilometers from the ground control station to which it constantly transmits the collected data and the optical image that the drone "sees". At the end of the mission, the drone descends to the ground with a parachute.
The system of unmanned reconnaissance aircraft Belin-V is already used in several countries of the world, and it has shown good performance in real war conditions on the battlefield in Ukraine, where Slovenian reconnaissance and surveillance drones are used by units of the Ukrainian army.
From the Ministry of Defense (MoD) headed by the Minister Dragan Krapović (Democrats) did not precisely answer the question of "Vijesti" how many of these BPL will be procured, at what price and when they will be delivered and put into operational use by VCG units.
"According to the provisions of the Agreement, the contract with the industrial supplier is concluded by the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Slovenia, we have been sent a draft contract for acceptance, after which it will be concluded with the Slovenian supplier in the middle of next year. It is important to point out that this is the first case of an agreement between Montenegro and the Republic of Slovenia based on the joint procurement model," the Ministry of Defense told us.
During the signing of the Agreement with the Slovenian Ministry of Defense, it was announced this summer that this equipment will be purchased at the same price as the Slovenian army, and that a total of six aircraft with accompanying equipment will be purchased.
By the way, in mid-November last year, the Slovenian Ministry of Defense signed a contract with C-Astral Aerospace on the delivery of two Belin-V unmanned aerial vehicle systems to the Slovenian army. According to this arrangement worth 1,26 million euros, C-Astral will deliver six drones, two ground control stations, two tablet-based mobile controllers, two AstralTrack 5xu antennas and four tactical radio stations to the Slovenian Army by the end of May at the latest.
The same two such systems with a total of six aircraft should then be given to Montenegro, and the signing of the contract by our Ministry of Defense with C-Astral is expected in the summer.
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