According to the expert, “Okhotnik” could have been shot down by the Russians themselves to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Armed Forces of Ukraine intact.
The Russians could have shot down their own UAV so that it did not reach the Armed Forces unharmed / screenshot
On October 5, a new Russian stealth UAV “Okhotnik” was shot down in the Kostyantynivka area of the Donetsk region. As the analyst writes Forbes David Ax, the Russian Federation has only a few such drones, and now one of them – or at least its fragments – is in the hands of Ukraine.
“They will take it apart to the last cog and, of course, get acquainted with its rich internal contents,” complained the Russian tg channel Fighterbomber.
As Aks notes, it is still unclear what caused the drone to fall. In the video of the downing of the UAV, a military aircraft was recorded that fired a missile at the Okhotnik, as a result of which it fell to the ground. At the same time, writes the analyst, although the probable version that the “Okhotnik” was shot down by a Ukrainian fighter jet, one cannot reject the option that it was shot down by the Russians themselves:
“If the Okhotnik was malfunctioning, the Russians might have preferred to shoot it down rather than risk it falling on Ukrainian territory practically intact.”
At the same time, there is a high probability that the “Hunter” encountered powerful radio interference, since, most likely, the drone does not have full autonomy and depends on stable communication with operators on the ground, writes Aks.
“This is a shameful loss for the tattered Russian Air Force, which has already lost more than 100 combat aircraft, including at least one Su-57 stealth fighter, due to Ukrainian guns, missiles and drones,” he emphasizes.
He notes that “Hunter” can theoretically penetrate through enemy defenses and deliver ammunition. This UAV belongs to the same class as China’s Tian Ying drone and the Lockheed Martin RQ-170 reconnaissance UAV of the US Air Force.
At the same time, although the probability that the Okhotnik will eventually enter the service of the Russian Air Force is high, it is still unclear whether Russia has built enough Okhotniks or conducted enough tests to fully equip the front with them.
“It is possible that this UAV is still in the development stage. Although the Russian Air Force often sends test aircraft to combat zones to collect data in real conditions, the loss of a rare and expensive test aircraft during combat trials is a huge development failure,” – concludes analyst.
Downing of the Russian stealth UAV “Hunter”
On the afternoon of October 5, the Ukrainian military shot down an enemy target in the Donetsk region. Later, Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Center for Countering Disinformation at the NSDC, said that the new Russian S-70 Okhotnik drone could also have been shot down.
At the same time, Defense Express expert Ivan Kyrychevsky noted that, theoretically, this drone could be a kind of replacement for Russian Su-34 aircraft. He also emphasized that the Russians have obviously found an opportunity to get dangerously close to the front line with any aircraft, and will try by all means to maintain air superiority in order to continue offensive operations.
