Belgorod drone developer mothballs plant in Togliatti

The developer and manufacturer of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) “Transport of the future”, created with the participation of the group “EFCO”, freezes production in Togliatti due to the lack of orders, told RBC in the press service of the company. The manufacturer intends to focus the main resources on the development of civilian drones.

“Transport of the Future” LLC preserves the production site in Togliatti, Samara region. In the absence of new orders for military equipment, the company is forced to reduce production costs and focus main resources on the development of civilian unmanned aircraft systems, the company said, noting that the decision was made in the context of criminal prosecution of the group’s investors.

At the same time, the company emphasizes that Togliatti will not stop design work on military topics. In “Transport of the future” specified that by the end of the year the company will complete the finalization of heavy drones of the third generation “Product 80” taking into account the recommendations received from the center “Rubicon”, as well as design work on “Product 70”, a lighter copter.

The main resources of the company will be directed to the development of civilian UAVs - agrodrone C-80, drone "Heron" for automatic sampling of soil, convertoplane for monitoring crops, as well as delivery drone C-40.

“We remain convinced that drones are the future of agriculture, logistics, land monitoring and infrastructure.” Sooner or later, restrictions on civilian drone flights will be lifted, and Russia has every chance to become one of the world leaders in this industry. At this point, we want to be ready, the company said.

The company "Transport of the Future" was registered in the Belgorod region in 2021. Initially, the project was created with the participation of Efko, but later it was withdrawn from the holding structure and continued to work as an independent company. It is 98% owned by JSC IBS and 2% by JSC Unmanned Technologies. In 2023, the company launched the first stage of the plant for the production of unmanned aircraft systems in the special economic zone Togliatti, and in January 2025, President Vladimir Putin visited the production site.

The main shareholder of Efko group Valery Kustov was detained in late July. Together with him, the general director of Efko Group Evgeny Lyashenko was detained on charges of especially large-scale fraud and embezzlement. As reported by the source of RBC, the claims of the security forces are associated with the implementation of the project to create unmanned aircraft systems “Transport of the future”.

As part of the same investigation, the general director of OptTorg, Alexander Gudkov, is under a travel ban, and the general director of Transport of the Future Samara, Ilya Sidorov, is under house arrest. The former head of “Transport of the Future” Yuri Kozarenko, according to sources of RBC, concluded a pre-trial agreement on cooperation with the Prosecutor General’s Office and testified against other defendants in the case, after which he changed the measure of restraint.

The other defendants do not admit guilt. The maximum penalty for each of the imputed compositions provides for up to ten years of imprisonment.