Russia cracking down on drone usage as it makes ERA-GLONASS navigation tech mandatory — GPS rival can monitor up to 1 million drones on land, water, and in the air in real time
- Russia will reject flight plans from October 1 for civilian drones over 250 grams that are not connected to its ERA-GLONASS tracking system
- ERA-GLONASS is Russia's eCall-style emergency telematics platform that effectively functions as a clearinghouse for tracker data
- Officials are pitching the system as a way to lift regional drone bans, yet Moscow-area and St. Petersburg restrictions remain in force for now
From October 1 2026, Russia will stop accepting flight plans for civilian drones that are not hooked up to ERA-GLONASS, the state telematics platform that was previously best known for dispatching ambulances to car crashes.
The Ministry of Transport recently announced the change, stating "connection to ERA-GLONASS will become a prerequisite for submitting flight plans" to the State Air Traffic Management Corporation.
The requirement, which comes at a time when it continues to engage in an increasingly escalatory conflict with Ukraine, much of which involves drones of...
Copyright of this story solely belongs to www.techradar.com. To see the full text click HERE
