SOURCE: FROBES
Shooting down their own brand new drone on video when it went out of control over Ukraine may be one of the biggest embarrassments ever suffered by the Russian Air Force. But there may be worse to come.
The Sukhoi S-70 Okhotnik-B (“Hunter-B”) was a prototype stealth combat drone, a ‘loyal wingman’ designed to operate alongside with the new Sukhoi Su-57 “Felon” fighter. After it was shot down by its accompanying Su-57, the Russians fired an Iskander missile at the crash suite to destroy the S-70 wreckage. Pictures show that well before the missile strike took place, the Ukrainians had already taken away key components for analysis.
That analysis is likely to be very embarrassing for the Russians – but maybe not for the reasons you might expect.
The technology of reducing how easily an aircraft can be seen on radar is technically known as ‘signature reduction’ and commonly known as stealth. While the general approach have been known since WWII, the idea of specifically designing an aircraft which would be effectively invisible to radar was revolutionary and highly classified.
Prototypes of the stealthy F-117 Nighthawk flew in the 70s but it was not until 1980 that Secretary of Defense Harold Brown officially announced the existence the new ‘stealth technology.’