Forbes: Russian Aerospace Forces Suffer Shameful Loss

A rare stealth drone crashed in Ukraine.

Ukrainian troops in eastern Ukraine received an unexpected gift when a rare Russian S-70 Okhotnik stealth drone fell from the sky over the fortress city of Chasiv Yar. Forbes reported.

Russia has only a few such jet drones and now one of them — or at least its wreckage — is in the hands of Ukraine and allies.

It is unclear what exactly led to this crash. A video taken from the ground shows smoke over the UAV as it falls to the ground, implying that it has been damaged. But the damage was clearly less than one would expect from an air-to-air or surface-to-air missile.

One likely reason is that the Okhotnik may have encountered powerful radio interference along this sector of the front line. The drone probably does not have full autonomy and instead depends on constant communication with operators on the ground. This detail of the design, which Ukrainian and allied analysts can now confirm or refute by inspecting the remains of the Okhotnik.

The publication notes that this is a shameful loss for the battered Russian Aerospace Forces, which have written off more than 100 combat aircraft, including at least one Su-57 stealth fighter, due to Ukrainian guns, missiles and drones.

The Okhotnik appeared firstly back in 2019 and 5 years after its debut, it is unclear whether the Sukhoi plant has built enough such devices to equip them with parts on the front line, the publication writes, not excluding that it may be a UAV for testing.

Although it is not new for the Russian Aerospace Forces to send test aircraft to combat zones to collect data, the loss of a rare and expensive vehicle during combat tests will be a huge blow to development efforts.

Why did the Russian Armed Forces release the rare Okhotnik into flight on the front line?

However, it is obvious why the Russian Aerospace Forces would be forced to deploy the Okhotnik, writes Forbes. The Russian Armed Forces are losing their standard reconnaissance drones rapidly.

According to analyst Andrew Perpetua, Russian forces conduct about 300 drone reconnaissance missions every day during the 31 months of the large-scale war in Ukraine. Recently, almost a third of these sorties ended with the drone getting shot down.

Perhaps anticipating the surveillance gap, the Russians took a big risk with their newest, and still not fully finished, drone. And the Okhotnik could become a victim of the same Ukrainian defence, which has already made the sky above the front line dangerous even for less advanced types of drones.

UAV Specifications and Capabilities

The Okhotnik-B ("Hunter-B") is capable of carrying a wide range of weapons, including guided and unguided bombs weighing up to 1000 kg, as well as various air-to-ground and air-to-air missiles. The device has an AL-31 jet engine, which is used on Su-27 fighters. The unit can reach speeds of up to 1,000 km/h and a range of almost 6,000 km.

At the end of July, analyst Maya Carlin came to the conclusion that the Russian drone S-70 Okhotnik, developed by the Sukhoi company and the MiG Russian Aircraft Corporation, is likely to go into production soon. Problems with the production of a promising Russian UAV are associated with the complexity of stealth technologies, as well as with economic restrictions caused by Western sanctions.

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