The Element Group plans to produce at least 200,000 domestic chips for drones in 2026. The contract value is tens of millions of rubles, the exact amount is not disclosed.
Currently, imported chips from the STM32 family from STMicroelectronics are mainly used in this role. The Russian alternative was built on the open RISC-V architecture.
Engineers are also testing a similar chip for flight controllers. Completion of testing is scheduled for Q2 2026. The project is being implemented as part of a national program to achieve a 70.3% share of domestic components in UAVs by 2030.
Simple unmanned aerial systems use one microcontroller, more complex ones use two or more. They are distributed by function: flight control, power supply, payload, peripherals. Thus, 200,000 chips can be integrated into approximately 100,000–200,000 finished drones.