Direct proof of use
The Orlan-10 was used by Russian forces in the 2014 Russia-Ukraine War as a tactical unmanned aircraft for reconnaissance and fire support. RUSI described the aircraft as one of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation's most important systems in Ukraine, where Orlan-10s located Ukrainian troops and vehicles and relayed their positions for artillery, missile, and loitering-munition strikes.
U.S. Army T2COM likewise assessed that the Orlan-10's primary use in Ukraine was in Russia's reconnaissance complex, locating Ukrainian troops for artillery targeting and increasing the lethality of Russian fires. ISIS also described the Orlan-10 as widely used by Russian military forces to pinpoint Ukrainian military and civilian targets for artillery strikes.
Sources: RUSI Orlan Complex, T2COM Orlan Ukraine Employment, ISIS Orlan Foreign Parts
Timeline
Conflict Armament Research documented Orlan-10 airframe and component evidence from eastern Ukraine in its post-2014 field investigations. CAR reported that its teams examined captured materiel recovered by Ukrainian defence and security forces from armed formations in Donetsk and Luhansk regions between 2014 and 2019, including Orlan-10 UAV material.
After the February 2022 full-scale invasion, RUSI and T2COM described the Orlan-10 as central to Russian reconnaissance and fires in Ukraine. A separate RUSI air-war report said that, after Russian forces concentrated in Donbas and southeastern Ukraine in April 2022, Russian troops coordinated Orlan-10 UAV complexes with electronic-warfare assets to force Ukrainian air-defense systems to reveal themselves and then cue artillery or missile strikes.
Sources: CAR Weapons of the War in Ukraine, RUSI Orlan Complex, RUSI Russian Air War, T2COM Orlan Ukraine Employment
Reconnaissance and fires
In Russian service, the Orlan-10 functioned less as a standalone weapon than as a sensor node in a wider reconnaissance-fire complex. RUSI reported that Orlan-10s operating over Ukraine could shorten Russian artillery response times to minutes after target detection, compared with substantially longer response times when UAVs were not overhead.
T2COM described the Orlan-10 as a medium-range multipurpose UAS supporting reconnaissance, electronic warfare, and target acquisition. Its article noted that Orlan-10 payloads include optical, infrared, and electromagnetic sensors, and that sensor data can be transmitted in real time over datalink to support targeting.
Sources: RUSI Orlan Complex, T2COM Orlan Ukraine Employment
Air-defense suppression and electronic warfare
RUSI reported that Russian forces also used Orlan-10s in Ukraine for suppression and destruction of enemy air defenses. In that description, Orlan-10s with electronic-warfare, electronic-intelligence, and electro-optical payloads worked as a group to expose Ukrainian SA-8 and SA-11 surface-to-air missile systems, identify launch positions, and cue Russian artillery or missile strikes.
A separate RUSI study of the Russian air war reported that these Orlan-10 hunting complexes became more coordinated after Russian forces refocused on Donbas and southeastern Ukraine in April 2022. The same account linked Orlan-10 complexes to pressure on Ukrainian Buk and Osa systems near the front.
Sources: RUSI Orlan Complex, RUSI Russian Air War
