S-70 "Okhotnik" UCAV

I personally don't think this was carried out using such drone. I think it's still some time away yet for Russia to be testing it in this manner.

https://bulgarianmilitary.com/amp/2020/08/03/russian-attacking-drone-s-70-okhotnik-struck-at-militants-positions-in-syria-sources/

Well hitting oil supplies from Syria to Turkey would be an important goal for Russia... if Turkey wasn't getting cheap oil out of this deal they would be less inclined to help the terrorists...

And certainly it is the sort of job that a stealth drone would be ideal for and having real life tests is a more comprehensive "exam" than anything they could do in a lab test...

It would also be a useful opportunity to test various new glide bombs like Grom for instance, or even tiny bombs like an KAB-5 or KAB-10... if they are hitting fuel trucks and fuel storage areas then a ZAB-20 or ZAB-10 incendiary bomb might be more effective at getting fires to burn...

The Ministry of Defense decided to make a heavy drone "Okhotnik" a long-range interceptor

MOSCOW, August 27. / TASS /. The RF Ministry of Defense proposed to use the Okhotnik heavy unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for long-range interception of air targets. This was reported to TASS by a source in the aircraft industry on the sidelines of the Army-2020 exhibition.

"According to the concept of use proposed by the department, the Okhotnik with long-range weapons will be deployed to the lines of several thousand kilometers to intercept enemy aircraft, that is, it will attack air targets even before they approach the air defense zone," the agency's source said.

The source noted that the Okhotnik's flight will be coordinated simultaneously from ground control posts, from manned Su-57 fighters and via satellites.

At the same time, the source added, thanks to artificial intelligence, the "Hunter" will be able to independently perform combat missions. "It is assumed that this UAV will also have a fully autonomous operation mode and will be able to independently search for certain types of targets, report on them and attack," the source said.

About "Hunter"
Developed at the Sukhoi design bureau, the Okhotnik drone is made according to the "flying wing" scheme using stealth technology, which reduces its radar signature. According to open sources, the takeoff weight of the vehicle is up to 20 tons, the maximum flight speed is about 1,000 km / h.

The Hunter first took to the air on August 3, 2019, the flight lasted more than 20 minutes under the control of the operator. On September 27 last year, the UAV flew together with the Su-57 fighter. The drone maneuvered in the air in automatic mode at an altitude of about 1,600 m, the flight duration was more than 30 minutes.

General Director of the United Aircraft Corporation Yuri Slyusar said at the Army-2020 forum on August 25 that a large order is expected for the Hunters, the serial deliveries of which are planned to begin in 2024.

News about the Okhotnik: three more prototypes will be produced in the next two years, acceleration of the program and sourcing contracts ongoing

https://iz.ru/1070737/anton-lavrov-aleksei-ramm/nashlis-okhotniki-voennye-poluchat-tiazhelye-bespilotnye-istrebiteli
https://www.militarynews.ru/story.asp%3Frid%3D0%26nid%3D539380%26lang%3DRU

The first prototype demonstrator of the #Russian heavy reconnaissance and strike unmanned aerial vehicle S-70 on the Hunter theme at the 929th V.P. Chkalov State Flight Test Center of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation in Akhtubinsk.
#Russia


https://twitter.com/5thSu/status/1330935081830150154

Wars in Syria, Libya, Azerbaijan have clearly shown there is no future for manned combat aircraft. Gone are the days of world wars. All future wars will be fought by proxy in small scale. Drone will rule the skies in future wars. Fortunately Russian MOD taking drones seriously and focus entirely on drones for future wars.

Tai Hai Chen wrote:Wars in Syria, Libya, Azerbaijan have clearly shown there is no future for manned combat aircraft. Gone are the days of world wars. All future wars will be fought by proxy in small scale. Drone will rule the skies in future wars. Fortunately Russian MOD taking drones seriously and focus entirely on drones for future wars.

I agree. Su-57 would be easy pray for TB2 and manpads...

If it faces orlan-10 type of drones, the pilot should eject and surrender as soon as he is in the air.

Yeah, Surface to Air missiles were supposed to make aircraft obsolete... just like anti ship missiles and anti tank weapons made ships and tank obsolete too...

Quite a wee way to go before drones mature to a point where they actually replace a range of manned aircraft types... at the moment most are sitting ducks whose existence and performance so far is mostly based around its new and wow factor.

Against a solid IADS it just comes down to having more ammo than the enemy has drones and in that regard the Russians are working on super cheap simple weapons of a range of types to detect and bring down small cheap drones.

As we saw in Saudi Arabia... if you don't detect them they are very effective...

Tai Hai Chen wrote:Wars in Syria, Libya, Azerbaijan have clearly shown there is no future for manned combat aircraft. Gone are the days of world wars. All future wars will be fought by proxy in small scale. Drone will rule the skies in future wars. Fortunately Russian MOD taking drones seriously and focus entirely on drones for future wars.

The war in Karabakh would have been over the first week if someone had flown its Migs to shoot down the TB-2 fleet.
Drones are the future for a boatload of reasons, just NOT the ones you mention.

KoTeMoRe wrote:

Tai Hai Chen wrote:Wars in Syria, Libya, Azerbaijan have clearly shown there is no future for manned combat aircraft. Gone are the days of world wars. All future wars will be fought by proxy in small scale. Drone will rule the skies in future wars. Fortunately Russian MOD taking drones seriously and focus entirely on drones for future wars.

The war in Karabakh would have been over the first week if someone had flown its Migs to shoot down the TB-2 fleet.
Drones are the future for a boatload of reasons, just NOT the ones you mention.

Actually azeri have S-300PMU2 and belorussian modernized Osa systems. Old mig-29 would have fallen from the skies pretty fast.

If it was russian mig-29SMT and russian support then yes but if it was for exemple syrian mig-29 they would be easy targets.

Armenia has no air force.

Tai Hai Chen wrote:Gone are the days of world wars

It will be interesting to see this ones reaction to the third entry in the series.

Akhtubinsk

You have to remember with those satellite photos... we only see what they allow us to see.

If they wanted to keep it all super secret they could build a big shed with three walls and a roof so nothing in side was visible at all.

Everything that is really secret would be kept inside all the time... and only brought out and flown on heavily cloudy days or when there are no spy satellites due over.

GarryB wrote:You have to remember with those satellite photos... we only see what they allow us to see.

If they wanted to keep it all super secret they could build a big shed with three walls and a roof so nothing in side was visible at all.

Everything that is really secret would be kept inside all the time... and only brought out and flown on heavily cloudy days or when there are no spy satellites due over.

In fact, I suspect that these trucks in the picture are specially placed to create a scale. Look at the C-70: it's f*cking huge, damn it.

Scorpius wrote:...In fact, I suspect that these trucks in the picture are specially placed to create a scale. Look at the C-70: it's f*cking huge, damn it.

Now that you mentioned it it really is f*cking huge, like massive

This thing will be hauling bombs over the continent like Clydesdale

Looks more like a heavy fighter then a substitution for light fighters.

PapaDragon wrote:

Scorpius wrote:...In fact, I suspect that these trucks in the picture are specially placed to create a scale. Look at the C-70: it's f*cking huge, damn it.

Now that you mentioned it it really is f*cking huge, like massive

This thing will be hauling bombs over the continent like Clydesdale

Just for reference-next to the C-70 wing is something like this fuel tanker:

It needs to be big because it can't be thick.... it needs a thin profile to fly at high subsonic speeds to support the planes it operates with, but it has a flight range of about 5,000km... so that means fuel and internal weapon carriage too... it needs to be big...

It does not look that big in the air though...

The S-70 is thicker then a MiG-21 which could travel at M2+. You don´t need a thin profile to travel at high subsonic speeds.

Hole wrote:The S-70 is thicker then a MiG-21 which could travel at M2+. You don´t need a thin profile to travel at high subsonic speeds.

True, the wing profile of the Okhotnik is a clearly subsonic, thick layout with rounded LE...

Isos wrote:

KoTeMoRe wrote:

Tai Hai Chen wrote:Wars in Syria, Libya, Azerbaijan have clearly shown there is no future for manned combat aircraft. Gone are the days of world wars. All future wars will be fought by proxy in small scale. Drone will rule the skies in future wars. Fortunately Russian MOD taking drones seriously and focus entirely on drones for future wars.

The war in Karabakh would have been over the first week if someone had flown its Migs to shoot down the TB-2 fleet.
Drones are the future for a boatload of reasons, just NOT the ones you mention.

Actually azeri have S-300PMU2 and belorussian modernized Osa systems. Old mig-29 would have fallen from the skies pretty fast.

If it was russian mig-29SMT and russian support then yes but if it was for exemple syrian mig-29 they would be easy targets.

Armenia has no air force.

Azeri have no OSA by Pechora/Kvadrat. The PMU is in Gabala and Baku and they only have 2 battalions.

This is supposed to be RDF and yet I hear uneducated BS again and again.

Source: strike drone "Okhotnik" first tested with missiles

Tests of the combat unmanned aviation complex Okhotnik - Russia news agency, 1920, 02.12.

MOSCOW, December 2 - RIA Novosti. For the first time, the Russian military conducted a series of flights of the Okhotnik heavy attack drone at the Ashuluk training ground in the form of a fighter-interceptor with simulated air-to-air missiles, a source in the military-industrial complex told RIA Novosti.
Prior to this, the "Okhotnik" had already performed a number of flights, but during them only its flight qualities and the operation of the main on-board systems were assessed.
"From the strip of the military airfield of the Center for Combat Training and Combat Use of the Russian Aerospace Forces at the Ashuluk training ground, several flights of the Hunter were performed with functional simulators of guided air-to-air missiles. Such missiles in the combat version are designed to destroy other aircraft," the source said agencies, noting that the tests were recent.
The source explained that the flights performed "will make it possible to assess the coupling of the drone's avionics with missile guidance systems and the lead Su-57 aircraft ."

According to the interlocutor, simulators of missiles with infrared and radar homing heads were used on the Okhotnik.
"The simulators have a body and all the electronic stuffing of the corresponding missile, but they lack the engine and warhead," the source said.

https://ria.ru/20201202/ispytaniya-1587264518.html

Air to air missiles, S-70 will be the wingman of Su-57, and thunder uav could be the wingman of the S-70.

LMFS wrote:Source: strike drone "Okhotnik" first tested with missiles

Tests of the combat unmanned aviation complex Okhotnik - Russia news agency, 1920, 02.12.

MOSCOW, December 2 - RIA Novosti. For the first time, the Russian military conducted a series of flights of the Okhotnik heavy attack drone at the Ashuluk training ground in the form of a fighter-interceptor with simulated air-to-air missiles, a source in the military-industrial complex told RIA Novosti.
Prior to this, the "Okhotnik" had already performed a number of flights, but during them only its flight qualities and the operation of the main on-board systems were assessed.
"From the strip of the military airfield of the Center for Combat Training and Combat Use of the Russian Aerospace Forces at the Ashuluk training ground, several flights of the Hunter were performed with functional simulators of guided air-to-air missiles. Such missiles in the combat version are designed to destroy other aircraft," the source said agencies, noting that the tests were recent.
The source explained that the flights performed "will make it possible to assess the coupling of the drone's avionics with missile guidance systems and the lead Su-57 aircraft ."

According to the interlocutor, simulators of missiles with infrared and radar homing heads were used on the Okhotnik.
"The simulators have a body and all the electronic stuffing of the corresponding missile, but they lack the engine and warhead," the source said.

https://ria.ru/20201202/ispytaniya-1587264518.html

What would be really cool is S-70 with R-74M2 & R-37!

Look at the date! This is proof that Russia has a time machine!

But seriously...

I hope they fit Grom (Thunder) with boosters and put it onto a truck. Would be a nice deep strike weapon for the division or even brigade level (as successor for Totchka and partner of the new Hermes/Klenok version).