Association news

On 3 September, at the Eastern Economic Forum, the NAS Association organised and hosted the strategic session “Developing autonomous systems in the Far East”.

On the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum, Dmitry Afanasyev, Chairman of the Board of the NAS Association, gave an exclusive interview to the Zvezda media holding.

On 2 September the Eastern Economic Forum hosted the strategic session “From the Far East to the whole country: launching the low-altitude economy in Russia”.

The parties discussed the region’s need for autonomous systems — above all unmanned aircraft and ground transport — taking into account the climate, logistics and communication constraints of the Far North.

At the Eastern Economic Forum, Dmitry Afanasyev, Chairman of the Board of the NAS Association, and Alexander Smekalin, Director of the Association of Innovative Regions of Russia (AIRR), signed a long-term cooperation agreement.

At the Eastern Economic Forum, Dmitry Afanasyev, Chairman of the Board of the NAS Association, and Boris Korobets, Rector of Far Eastern Federal University, signed a strategic cooperation agreement.

At the Eastern Economic Forum, Dmitry Afanasyev, Chairman of the Board of the NAS Association, and Mikhail Nachevsky, Vice-Rector of Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, signed a strategic cooperation agreement.

At TECHNOPROM 2026, the 13th International Technology Development Forum, the Association of Operators and Manufacturers of Autonomous Systems “National Autonomous Systems” and the Tomsk Region Unmanned Aircraft Systems Research and Production Centre signed a strategic cooperation agreement.

At the XIII TECHNOPROM International Technology Development Forum in Novosibirsk, the National Autonomous Systems Association, which brings together operators and manufacturers of autonomous systems, signed strategic cooperation agreements with three key research and education centres of Siberia:

The agreement on interaction and cooperation was signed by Grigory Gorchakov, Executive Director of the NAS Association, and Pavel Korchagin, Rector of Omsk State Technical University. It covers the industry’s full development cycle: from fundamental research and innovation projects to training highly qualified specialists.

The XIII TECHNOPROM International Technology Development Forum in Novosibirsk hosted the signing of an agreement on interaction and cooperation between SibSUTIS and the National Autonomous Systems Association, which brings together operators and manufacturers of autonomous systems. The document was signed by Yuri Zazulya, Rector of SibSUTIS, and Grigory Gorchakov, Executive Director of the NAS Association.

The IV ROSTKI International Forum hosted the signing of an agreement on interaction and cooperation between the National Autonomous Systems Association (NAS) and Kazan State Power Engineering University (KSPEU).

As part of the business programme of the IV ROSTKI International Forum “Russia and China — Mutually Beneficial Cooperation”, the Kazan Expo centre hosted the signing of an agreement on interaction and cooperation between the National Autonomous Systems Association (NAS), which brings together operators and manufacturers of autonomous systems, and the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan.

Kazan, 17 August 2026 — The IV ROSTKI International Forum “Russia and China — Mutually Beneficial Cooperation” in Kazan hosted the signing of a landmark document: a strategic cooperation agreement between the National Autonomous Systems Association (NAS), which brings together operators and manufacturers of autonomous systems, and the World UAV Federation (WUAVF).

Kazan, 17 August 2026 — At the invitation of the Association of Innovative Regions of Russia (AIRR), Dmitry Afanasyev, Chairman of the National Autonomous Systems Association (NAS), took part in the IV ROSTKI International Forum “Russia and China — Mutually Beneficial Cooperation”.

On 4 August, the Lomonosov cluster in Moscow hosted a roundtable on insurance in the field of autonomous systems. For the first time, representatives of the insurance market and industry companies discussed these matters in a direct dialogue.

At the Archipelago 2026 project and education intensive, the National Autonomous Systems Association organised a themed roundtable, "The UAS market in the context of the national strategy for the development of autonomous systems".

At the Archipelago 2026 forum in Nizhny Novgorod, the National Autonomous Systems Association of operators and manufacturers of autonomous systems and the National Technology Initiative Project Support Fund signed an agreement on interaction and cooperation.

At the Archipelago 2026 forum in Nizhny Novgorod, the National Autonomous Systems Association of operators and manufacturers of autonomous systems and the Nizhny Novgorod Region Unmanned Aircraft Systems Research and Production Centre signed an agreement on interaction and cooperation.

The talent shortage is the main problem the entire autonomous systems industry talks about, yet no one has so far tackled it at a systemic scale. The National Autonomous Systems Association is betting on exactly that: the cooperation agreement with Alekseev Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University, signed at Archipelago 2026, is built first and foremost around training specialists — the people who will design, operate and maintain autonomous systems in the years immediately ahead.

The National Autonomous Systems Association of operators and manufacturers of autonomous systems (the NAS Association) and HSE University have signed an agreement on interaction and cooperation. The document was signed by Dmitry Afanasyev, Chairman of the Board of the NAS Association, and Dmitry Zemtsov, Vice Rector and Director of the Institute for Humanities and Social Technologies at HSE University.

The World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) is the largest international venue in the field of AI and autonomous technologies. Every year it draws governments, technology corporations, regulators and industry associations from dozens of countries — not to observe, but to negotiate: to align standards, build partnerships and state national positions. In 2026 the conference brought together representatives of more than 80 countries and over 1,100 companies.

Every year the All-Russian Field Day records how Russia's agro-industrial sector is changing. This year the main signal from the plenary session was this: autonomous technologies have moved beyond pilot projects and now stand alongside traditional production tools. Minister of Agriculture Oksana Lut spoke about scale, the economics of adoption and strategy — not about prospects.

The document sets out the mechanisms of interaction in developing unmanned and autonomous systems for the agro-industrial sector

The Association has been named a key participant in shaping the industry’s 10-year roadmap

Why do Russian autonomous-transport technologies remain pilot projects? How can a successful case in one region be turned into a mass solution for the whole country? And what role do industry associations play in this? These questions were answered by the Chairman of the Board of the National Autonomous Systems Association, Dmitry Afanasyev, in his address at the strategic panel “The autonomous transport of the future: law, the city, the individual” as part of Drone Expo 2026 in Kazan.

Kazan, 8 July 2026 — At the international Drone Expo 2026, the Chairman of the Board of the National Autonomous Systems Association, Dmitry Afanasyev, presented a five-step programme for building a personnel system for Russia’s autonomous economy. The presentation took place at the round table “Personnel special forces: professions of the future that will safeguard the country” and the expert session “UAS export: entering the global market”.

INNOPROM has summed up the first national ranking of regions by their readiness to deploy UAS. Yekaterinburg, 7 July 2026 — the Federal UAS Centre, together with the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia, presented the results of the first national dronification ranking of Russian regions. 84 regions were assessed against 29 indicators — from the size of the UAS-services market to the speed of issuing flight permits. The main conclusion: the infrastructure has been built, but the mass use of drones in civilian industries is still a long way off.

Yekaterinburg, 7 July 2026 — At the country’s main industrial exhibition, INNOPROM 2026, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia presented the results of the national technology-leadership programme “Unmanned Aircraft Systems”. The results show that the industry has made a qualitative leap — from experiments to industrial production. The National Autonomous Systems Association, which unites leading UAS manufacturers and operators, welcomes the figures achieved and sees in them confirmation of the industry’s readiness for a new stage of development — the mass adoption of unmanned technologies in the civilian sectors of the economy.

Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, 4 July 2026 — Sakhalin State University (SakhSU) and the NAS Association signed a cooperation agreement on the development of autonomous systems.

3–5 July 2026, Ulyanovsk Region — Evgeny Rebizov of the NAS Association took part in the Summer Merge IT anti-conference, where a mass consumer drone-delivery service operated commercially for the first time in Russia.

Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, 3 July 2026 — At the international “Wings of Sakhalin” forum of unmanned vehicles for all domains, the Association of Operators and Manufacturers of Autonomous Systems “National Autonomous Systems” (NAS) concluded two key strategic partnership agreements: with GLONASS JSC and the Government of the Sakhalin Region.

Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, July 2026 — As part of the international “Wings of Sakhalin” forum of unmanned vehicles for all domains, a plenary session was held that brought together federal ministers, regional heads, and representatives of industry, science and technology companies. Over two hours of discussion the participants travelled from the geopolitics of the Arctic to the engineering of underwater robots, acknowledging: unmanned technologies have ceased to be a niche — they are becoming the foundation of a new economy.

The 9th All-Russian conference “Protecting civilian facilities from unmanned-system attacks and the infrastructure for operating UAS / counter-UAS 2026” has concluded in St Petersburg — the largest gathering in the event’s history of experts on countering threats from unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).

Moscow, 1 July 2026 — The project office of the National Technology Initiative (the NTI Platform) hosted a strategy session on updating the NTI Aeronet legislative roadmap (LRM). The event brought together representatives of federal authorities, regulators, developers, operators and infrastructure centres — all the key participants in the unmanned aircraft systems ecosystem.

The strategic agreement covers unmanned aircraft systems, autonomous transport, robotics and artificial-intelligence technologies.

At the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, a new stage of cooperation between the state and the autonomous systems industry has begun.