Zala Aero Group unveiled a new unmanned system for long-distance flights — the Zala 421-16E5G — at the closed exhibition Zala Expo,  which began on April 19 in Moscow.

The Zala 421-16E5G is a domestic unmanned aerial vehicle with a hybrid power plant. The non-aerodrome-based system is capable of providing aerial monitoring covering distances of more than 150 kilometers and staying in the air for more than 12 hours.

The Zala 421-16E5G has a unique power plant that charges a buffer battery for an hour. The power plant allows the UAV to fly long distances. During production test flights, the duration of the Zala 421-16E5G was 16 hours.

The unmanned system is equipped with a combined payload with two thermal imagers and a 60x video camera. Optionally, the Zala 421-16E5G is capable of carrying a payload weighing up to 10 kg. The video stream is broadcast in high-definition format (1280 x 720 resolution), which allows the ground-station operator to view the streaming image in great detail.

In addition to optoelectronic loads, the device is equipped with electronic reconnaissance equipment and communication repeaters. Objects are detected and recognized in real-time by the onboard computer based on artificial intelligence.