Russia rolls out drone textbook for middle school students

Victoria Kopylova, Vice President of Publishing at Prosveshchenie, had the following to say about the new textbook:

“It is crucial to encourage students to make informed decisions about pursuing engineering careers. The necessary conditions for this have already been established. Most schools in the Russian Federation are now equipped with modern teaching tools and advanced technical resources, including dedicated classrooms for studying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).”

Following Vladimir Putin's proposal in spring 2023 to introduce drone operation training in schools, educational institutions across the country began acquiring UAVs, and a drone course was incorporated into the military training curriculum for 10th and 11th graders.

“Uroki truda” («урок труда»), or “labor lessons,” are a traditional component of the Russian school curriculum, focusing on practical, hands-on education aimed at developing students' work-related skills. Historically, these lessons have included a variety of tasks such as woodworking, metalworking, sewing, cooking, and other forms of manual labor, while recent additions have incorporated more modern skills such as robotics, technology, engineering — and, as of late, drone studies.

The equivalents of “uroki truda” in the UK and the U.S. are generally referred to as “Design and Technology” (D&T) in the UK and “shop class” or “industrial arts” in the U.S.

Drones have played a crucial role in the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. For instance, the Lancet drone (also known as ZALA Lancet), developed by Russia's Kalashnikov Concern, has been used extensively in Ukraine as a loitering munition or kamikaze drone.

Despite sanctions, the Lancet contains many Western electronic components, including NVIDIA's Jetson TX2 module for onboard control, and the Xilinx Zynq SoC module — produced by Xilinx, a California-based company owned by AMD — which is used for implementing programmable logic.