Avatar feed
Responses: 6
LTC Stephen F.
6
6
0
Edited 6 y ago
Thank you, my friend CW5 Jack Cardwell for making us aware "Russia is developing a stealthy, jet-powered robot warplane. In contrast to the Kremlin's previous, abortive effort to field a killer drone, this latest effort appears likely to produce a useful, front-line aircraft.
The first blurry images of the Okhotnik-B drone appeared on Jan. 23, 2019 on a Russian aviation website. The photos depict a tractor towing the apparently roughly 50-foot-wide unmanned aerial vehicle along a snow-ringed runway at an airfield in Novosibirsk in southern Russia.
A flying wing similar in shape to the U.S. Air Force's B-2 stealth bomber, Okhotnik-B—that means "hunter" in Russian—in theory could penetrate enemy defenses to deliver ordnance.
Okhotnik is in the same class as China's Tian Ying drone, the U.S. Air Force's RQ-170 surveillance unmanned aerial vehicle, the U.S. Navy's experimental X-47B UAV and Boeing's X-45C drone demonstrator.
The likelihood of Okhotnik eventually entering squadron service with the Russian air force is "big," Tom Cooper , an independent expert on Russian military aviation, told The National Interest .
"The Russian military is running multiple UAV-related projects," Cooper said. "Thus the emergence of this project is perfectly normal."
Cooper said that, for the Russians, Okhotnik is "simply the further development of what they've been doing until now."

FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen PO1 H Gene Lawrence PO2 Kevin Parker CPT Scott Sharon SSG William Jones SGT John " Mac " McConnell SP5 Mark Kuzinski Lt Col Charlie Brown Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price Maj Marty Hogan SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL LTC Greg Henning LTC Jeff Shearer CWO3 Dennis M. PO3 Bob McCord SGT (Join to see)
(6)
Comment
(0)
Avatar small
SPC Douglas Bolton
1
1
0
CW5 Jack Cardwell I said this before. The next war will be a war of the drones.
(1)
Comment
(0)
Avatar small
MCPO Roger Collins
1
1
0
Are drone frequencies susceptible to jamming?
(1)
Comment
(0)
CW3 Aviation Safety Officer
CW3 (Join to see)
6 y
MCPO Roger Collins The US has many small drones in the fleet that are unusable because the manufacturer used Chinese microchips made microchips that had a built-in backdoor access.
(1)
Reply
(0)
Avatar small

Join nearly 2 million former and current members of the US military, just like you.

close