Drone Textbook Officially Introduced in Russian Schools

Russian schools now officially have their first textbook on drone operation, introduced as part of the “Technology” subject. Titled Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, the textbook for 8th and 9th graders was published in September last year by the state-owned publisher Prosveshchenie in collaboration with the Geoscan group of companies. On May 26, it was added to the federal list of approved textbooks.

The textbook Unmanned Aerial Vehicles consists of six chapters:

Introduction to Unmanned Aviation

Classification and Design of UAVs

Electronic Components of Drones

Basics of Manual Piloting

Programming Autonomous Flights

Trends and Careers in the World of UAVs

Training students to operate drones has become a key priority in Russia’s increasingly militarized education system. This is no coincidence: drones are one of the main types of weaponry used in the war against Ukraine.

According to The Economist, Russia was producing around 300 drones per month in 2024 — now that figure has risen to nearly 300 every three days. Documents obtained by Ukrainian intelligence reveal that Moscow’s goal is to ramp up production to 500 drones per day.