The issue of the overall development of various types of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), including unmanned helicopters for civilian and military purposes, has been and still is well addressed by the Moscow-based analysts and defense correspondents. However, what has been lacking is analysis concerning the issue from the Western perspective.

When it comes to the issue of the use of UAVs by the Russian armed forces, this has been less publicised. This is partly because the open source information related to the operations of the 58th Army in Chechnya has not shed any light on the issue, and/or perhaps partly because there has been no reason to shed any such light.

The Chechen war provided the original impetus for using UAVs during combat. The technological level of the UAVs used in Chechnya has been low and lags behind the development and manufacture of UAVs in Israel and the US.

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