It’s a story made for speculation: A Russian fighter jet, apparently a rare Sukhoi Su-57, fires a guided missile in the air from close range – and deliberately hits an even rarer Russian giant Type S drone -70 Okhotnik. And not somewhere in the Russian hinterland, but over Ukraine, in one of the most hotly contested areas of the war, behind the enemy front lines.
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Employees of the Ukrainian authorities examined the wreckage of the Okhotnik on site in Konstantinowka and secured them.
Wreckage under the magnifying glass
This is what happened on October 5th in Donetsk Oblast, over the Ukrainian-controlled city of Konstantinovka. There, the rubble of the unmanned Russian flying wing rained down from the sky, which is officially still in the prototype stage and about which there are so far only a few concrete details. In the West there is now hope that this will soon change through the analysis of the wreckage – and in fact the police and army in Konstantinovka quickly rushed to the scene to search for parts that could be used in the charred rubble.
It was probably a prototype
It’s been floating around the internet ever since Original sound from an unnamed Ukrainian expertthe fabled S-70 Ochotnik is “not an advanced combat drone” but is more like “a glider, with basic flight capabilities and radio controls.” However, these anonymous statements, widely quoted by various media, should – at least at the moment – be treated with caution. The finding that the crashed UCAV apparently did not have a radar-absorbing coating does not allow any conclusions to be drawn about the status of a (later) Ochotnik series version – based on what we know, it probably doesn’t even exist yet. It is not even clear whether the one that was shot down had the flat thruster at the rear that was planned for the production Okhotnik, which the second prototype, for example, has. A picture circulating on X showing a piece of wreckage marked “S-70-4” shows can be interpreted as meaning that the S-70 from Konstantinowka is the fourth prototype. In fact, the state-owned company Rostec said it wanted to build four test ochotniks in spring 2021.
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This image shows the remains of the AL-41F turbofan of the Okhotnik, which was shot down by a Su-57 over Ukraine on October 5th.
With glide bomb on board
What is clear, however, is that the Okhotnik prototype was not traveling over Ukraine unarmed. Among the rubble in Konstantinovka are the remains of at least one glide bomb, presumably of the UMPB D-30SN type. This suggests that the Okhotnik was actually on a live combat mission, attacking targets in Ukrainian-controlled territory. Whether this actually happened in conjunction with the Su-57 stealth fighter, which ultimately shot it down, remains unconfirmed. According to Russian war reporter Aleksander Kots, such joint combat missions by S-70 and Su-57 have already taken place in the Ukrainian war.
The unlikely duo is “particularly effective at breaking through enemy air defenses,” writes Kots on his Telegram channel and speaks of at least two joint missions in which a total of “two dozen targets” were hit. In this scenario, the S-70 plays the role of the Su-57’s “loyal wingman”, taking on reconnaissance tasks, issuing target designations, but is also capable of carrying out attacks “with high-precision weapons”.
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This piece of wreckage belongs to a glide bomb that was carried by the Okhotnik – probably with the intention of dropping it on a Ukrainian target.
Unnoticed in the airspace
Of course, as always in a war, these statements should be viewed with caution. However, it is quite remarkable that the Okhotnik drone and the Su-57 operated together deep in an area where Ukrainian air defenses should be able to take action against Russian attackers. Nevertheless, the duo seems to have made it across the front line unmolested, as the Ochotnik crash site is around 20 kilometers away.
Microelectronics from Taiwan?
It also remains unclear why exactly the Russian fighter pilot took his apparently unfaithful “loyal wingman” out of the sky with an air-to-air missile. The prevailing view, both in the West and in Russia, is that the Okhotnik suddenly stopped responding to orders and instead flew straight to Ukraine. From the Russian perspective, the drone was most likely shot down to limit the damage.
There is passionate speculation about the reasons for the loss of control. The spectrum ranges from electronic countermeasures on the Ukrainian side that disrupted contact between the commander and the drone, to human error and programming errors, to the theory that the electronics of the Okhotnik prototype, which apparently rely on imported microchips from Taiwan, were Western Specialists have been hacked.
“Childhood diseases”
The Russian one Telegram-Kanal Fighterbomber is optimistic about finding the cause: “The telemetry worked until the drone was hit, so it may be possible to understand the cause of the incident.” War reporter Kots also writes on Telegram that the Russian “engineers and designers were able to obtain information to prevent future equipment failures.” Seen this way, the loss of the S-70 over Ukraine also had its good side: “Every new weapon has a number of teething problems that can only be identified through practical use,” said Kots.
However, one thing should be beyond question based on the details and images known so far, even if many aspects are unclear: that the S-70 Okhotnik is still a long way from being a fully operational stealth combat drone.
