Zala Aero To Deliver UAVs To Ministry of Internal Affairs of Turkmenistan

February 06, 2009

Zala Aero has won a contract to deliver the ZALA 421-12 unmanned aerial system to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Turkmenistan (the former Soviet Republic Turkmenia).

The ZALA 421-04М unmanned airplane has been built to meet the requirements of law enforcement services and is already used by units of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. The flying-wing design features a 1.6 m wing span and 3.9 kg maximum take-off weight and is equipped with a low noise electric motor.

It is capable of performing two hour-long flights within a 40 km radius of the control station a nd can carry a range of payloads including a colour video camera and a thermal surveillance device capable of viewing the whole lower hemisphere below the aircraft.

It is launched by pneumatic catapult and the ground control station can be integrated into any existing data transmission network and used to relay video data from the area of interest to remote receiver terminals in real time.

It is understood that the ZALA 421-12 UAVS will be operated by special units of Ministry of Internal Affairs of Turkmenistan to provide support in surveillance missions and on counterterrorist operations.

Zala Aero company specialises on research and development, manufacture and after sale support services of the UAV systems. So far, Zala have delivered fixed and rotary-wing UAV systems to several Russian customers including Frontier Service, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Ministry of Defense. They are also be used for monitoring main gas pipelines for Gazprom.

British and Israeli companies also bid for the contract.