Its capture could compromise the technology of the Russian Su-57 stealth fighter

The sophisticated Sukhoi S-70 aircraft that Russia lost in Ukraine in a bizarre incident

Esp 10·05·2024 · 21:26 0

This Saturday, Ukraine was the scene of an atypical situation in which a Russian fighter plane shot down another Russian plane.

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This morning, a video has been circulating on social media showing an aircraft shooting down another aircraft at high altitude with an air-to-air missile over Ukraine’s Donetsk region, as seen in this video posted at 11:28 CET by Special Kherson Cat:

The wreckage of the plane fell in the town of Kontantynivka, in an area controlled by Ukrainian forces. Initially the downed aircraft was thought to be a Russian Sukhoi Su-25 attack aircraft. Here we can see a video showing the wreckage of the downed aircraft:

However, as the hours passed, images began to appear showing the remains of a different plane.

What you see in these photos is a Sukhoi S-70 Okhotnik, a sophisticated unmanned aerial vehicle of the Russian Air Force. The first prototype made its maiden flight on August 3, 2019, being a joint project of the two major Russian fighter aircraft companies: Sukhoi and Mikoyan.

The S-70 is a large drone by the standards of unmanned aircraft (it has a wingspan of about 20 metres and a length of 14 metres). It is considered a sixth-generation fighter aircraft project, as future air weapons systems based on a manned fighter aircraft that can remotely control drones are currently called.

So far only two units of this advanced aircraft have been built, so with this strange incident, Russia has been left without half of its S-70 fleet. The theories circulating are that the S-70 would have been shot down by a Russian fifth-generation Sukhoi Su-57 fighter jet that would be remotely controlling the flight of the drone. The decision to shoot it down may be due to the fact that the Su-57 pilot lost control of the S-70 for unknown reasons.

This incident may have serious consequences for the Russian Air Force, beyond the mere loss of an advanced aircraft like the prototype that fell today in Ukraine. The Su-70 shares technologies with the Su-57 stealth fighter (below these lines), the Russian competitor of the F-22 and the F-35. This afternoon, the Russian Telegram channel Fighter Bomber lamented the loss of the S-70 commenting the following: "it is difficult to understand what happened to the UAV, because it fell in territory controlled by the Ukrainians. They will dismantle it down to the smallest screw and, of course, they will familiarize themselves with its rich internal content."

It should be noted that Ukraine will most likely hand over these remains to the United States, the country that has the best capacity to evaluate the S-70 technology and use it to the benefit of Western countries. By sharing technology with the Su-57, the technology of this fighter could be compromised.

On the other hand, today's incident shows that Russia is using not only the Su-57 over Ukraine, but also advanced drones that are in the development phase, and is also exposing them to altitudes where they are vulnerable to Ukrainian air defenses. Fighter Bomber acknowledged this with these words: "We could have damaged not only the Okhotnik but also the accompanying Su-57, and these are completely different scenarios."

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Photos: Special Kherson Cat / Inforesist / rbc.ua / Sputnik News.

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