Lhe images of a plane shooting down another aircraft with a missile above Ukraine, then those of the wreckage of the aircraft, were widely circulated on Monday October 7. Analysis of videos published on social networks suggests that the downed plane was a Russian S-70 Okhotnik-B stealth drone, hit by a missile fired by a… Russian fighter.
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If some observers immediately mocked the Russian army and its – very real – propensity to destroy its own planes, it does not seem to be an error: the guided missile would have been fired to shoot down a heavy drone which was no longer responding , before it can fall into enemy hands.
With its twenty tonnes, twenty meters wingspan and six thousand kilometers range, the Russian S-70 Okhotnik-B (“hunter”) stealth drone has nothing to do with small machines cobbled together from drones sold on the Internet. Capable of carrying 2.8 tonnes of ammunition distributed in its two holds, it has been developed by Souhkoi since the beginning of the 2010s on behalf of the Russian aerospace forces.
Not yet admitted to active service, it had only been seen on very rare occasions over the past five years, during arms shows or flight demonstrations, notably alongside the new Su-57 Felon stealth fighter.
The S-70 Okhotnik-B, future all-purpose drone
Russian doctrine provides for the S-70 Okhotnik-B to fulfill the role of a versatile loyal wingman, both in air combat and in ground attack missions, in order to reduce exposure pilots on the front. The project is ambitious, because it provides for an all-purpose device, whereas Western powers are instead developing drones specialized in air superiority, bombing or intelligence.
The destruction of the uncontrollable device was therefore crucial for Russia, which was not completely successful since the videos published on social networks show relatively large debris, which were recovered by the Ukrainians and are probably already in the hands of American engineers.
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