New details emerge on Russia’s S-70 drone loss over Ukraine

by Mission_Routine_2058

16 comments
  1. Let me guess. They blew up trillions of rubles on the promise of a stealth, autonomous UAV. The money got spent on yachts and villas and all they got is an RC plane which cannot even get a command to go back home (like most drones out there).

  2. seemingly even the rc planes & uav’s don’t want to be in the ruzzian world…

  3. Initial reports and footage circulated on social media showed Russian forces downing what was later identified as the S-70 drone, one of the most advanced unmanned systems in development by Russia.

    At present, Russia has only a few prototypes of the S-70 “Okhotnik,” which is being developed with technology drawn from the Su-57 fifth-generation fighter jet. The drone is part of Moscow’s efforts to field a fleet of heavy, stealthy unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that can carry out strike and reconnaissance missions in coordination with manned aircraft.

    According to reports, a pair of aircraft, consisting of a piloted Su-57 and the unmanned S-70, took off from Akhtubinsk Air Base, located about 365 miles from the front lines, for an operational test flight. The mission was part of the drone’s experimental trials, aiming to test its capabilities in live combat situations. However, a technical malfunction caused the drone to lose contact with its ground operator, veering off course toward Ukrainian-controlled territory.

    Panic ensued among the Russian military responsible for the test. Radio intercepts from the flight control center revealed that ground commanders ordered the accompanying Su-57 pilot to attempt to disrupt the rogue drone’s flight path, even suggesting using the aircraft’s wing to divert it. Ultimately, a decision was made to launch an air-to-air missile to bring down the drone.

    The S-70 “Okhotnik” crashed in Kostiantynivka, just 16 kilometers from the frontline, and its remnants were recovered by Ukrainian forces. Initial assessments of the wreckage cast doubt on Russian claims about the drone’s advanced capabilities. Contrary to Russian propaganda, the S-70 does not appear to feature the stealth polymers or advanced artificial intelligence systems that were advertised. “This is no advanced combat drone,” a Ukrainian defense expert said. “It’s more like a glider equipped with basic flight capabilities and radio controls.”

    Additionally, the use of the Su-57 manned fighter as a command relay for the drone was seen as inefficient and highlighted the limitations of Russian networking capabilities. The S-70 lacks the robust stealth technologies that Russia has claimed to possess, and it does not feature the kind of network-centric systems comparable to NATO’s Link-16. Instead, the drone relies on a basic radio link for guidance, limiting its operational flexibility.

    The Russian Ministry of Defense has long promoted the S-70 as a “loyal wingman” to the Su-57, capable of engaging in coordinated missions and using a wide range of airborne weaponry. However, the incident casts doubt on the drone’s ability to execute sophisticated combat maneuvers, including the use of air-to-air missiles or precision-guided weaponry.

  4. Mordor… Russia sucks so much, even their best drone tries running away. To Ukraine. Poor thing had to be shot down, before cutting communications it said “mordor sucks, I want to be NATO !”

  5. I suppose it kind of makes tactical sense to have a big UAV escorting their best fighters as an additional weapons platform / extra target for enemy fighters. If this were its main purpose then it could be cheaply made. Simply an extra add-on to the fighters it links to. Which will take the hit when intercepted by enemy aircraft.

    Where this becomes ‘very Russian’ is where it’s been sold as a 6 Gen super stealth autonomous hunter-killer that costs billions of rubles.

    Did it ever cost much? Money siphoned off by underhand project leaders. Or was it all just propaganda and being rolled out at a pittance?

  6. Just a bloated off the shelf RC plane, retrofitted with a warhead?

  7. So much for a “loyal wingman.” The S-70, so tired of Russian service it tried to runaway, was shot down by its own wingman.

    That will teach Russian tech to trust its masters. Ironically, even with its clear disadvantages compared with foreign competitors, even its minimally intelligent technology proved smarter than its human counterparts who still toil mindlessly in Putin’s machinery of death.

  8. So, uhm, basically a jet powered RC toy, huh…

    Maybe cool for my nephew this Christmas.

  9. Someone is getting suicided over this…💯😂

  10. Why didn’t Ukrainian air defense shoot them both down if they were inside Ukrainian air space?

  11. The Felon’s first combat kill! Something to celebrate, no?

  12. Hmmm. This all seems so fishy. Might be an unpopular opinion, but it would be very beneficial for Musk and Putin to change the narrative that he’s using starlink and high tech on his drones.. what better way than to make a shirt drone that looks like an S-70 but has dumb trucks and then to shoot it down over Ukraine? Win win win: give West false sense of security, take heat off them for using starlinks and other high tech, and improve black market for high tech by taking some heat off of it as West won’t be as hard-pressed to look into it?

    Ukraine gained nothing here. This could have been a test mule too with dumber tech, testing things like aerodynamics. We gain nothing by letting our guard down.

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