Russia has ordered 12 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from Israel in a $53m deal to study Israeli achievements in the development of UAVs, in order to build them domestically in Russia.

The purchase includes two heavy and ten small vehicles according to Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation deputy head Vyacheslav Dzirkaln, local news service RIA Novosti reports.

The air force has launched a number of UAV development programmes for various purposes.

Russia plans to use advanced UAVs with a flight range of up to 400km and a flight duration range of 12 hours by 2011, RIA Novosti reports.