Russia's success in attack drones has become obvious to everyone

The United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), part of the state corporation Rostec, for the first time demonstrated the S-70 Okhotnik drone equipped with a flat jet nozzle. This was announced on December 14 by the press service of the organization. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), created at the Sukhoi Design Bureau, was presented on Tuesday at the Novosibirsk Aviation Plant. V.P. Chkalov.

The event was attended by a delegation of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, headed by Deputy Minister of the Department Alexei Krivoruchko.




- noted Krivoruchko, who inspected the assembly process of the second flight prototype of the Okhotnik together with UAC CEO Yuri Slyusar and the head of the Rostec state corporation Sergei Chemezov.

He also added that the Russian Defense Ministry will conclude a serial contract for the supply of the Russian S-70 Okhotnik attack drone within the next six months.


- stressed the deputy minister.

The fact that the demonstration of the Russian drone is taking place with the participation of such a high-ranking military official, as well as the head of Rostec, a key domestic state corporation with a trillion-dollar turnover, is by no means accidental. The Russian defense industry is going to, if not fully focus, then at least direct a significant part of its efforts towards creating new world-class attack drones that can compete for a place in the international market. And the presented "Okhotnik" is no longer a trial balloon, but an attempt to develop an alternative to the models already in service with Russia in order to increase internal competition.

Orion Star

As you know, the Orion UAV, developed by the Kronstadt company, was the first Russian attack drone sent for experimental military operation. The contract for the serial supply of the devices was signed with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation back in 2020. According to Nikolai Dolzhenkov, general designer of Kronstadt, more than 90% of the components for it had to be made independently and from scratch. In an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta, he notes that with a wingspan of sixteen meters and a take-off weight of one ton, Orion is able to fly continuously for at least a day and rise to an altitude of seven and a half kilometers. At the same time, the presence of three suspension points provides Orion with a high carrying capacity: up to 200 kg.

Nevertheless, it is important to note that in addition to the tactical and technical characteristics of the drone itself, its remote control systems are no less important. The UAVs created by Kronstadt are part of the Orion-E reconnaissance and strike complex, which is a universal platform capable of using the widest arsenal of weapons. These include both unguided aerial bombs, the guidance accuracy of which is calculated by an on-board computer, and innovative high-precision guided air-to-ground and air-to-air missiles capable of striking both ground and air targets. And the flexibility of the architecture of the Russian drone makes it possible to integrate with it not only domestic, but also foreign aircraft weapons, which, of course, increases its competitiveness in the world market.

After all, it is worth being frank - drones are not weapons of mass destruction, but at the same time they are extremely expensive and in demand, which makes them an ideal export product. The use of drones in conflict is becoming the norm right before our very eyes, updating military textbooks in real time. For example, the most recent example of the importance of drones is their successful use during the war in Nagorno-Karabakh in September-November 2020. Moreover, it is significant that it was the Azerbaijani side, which actively used Israeli and Turkish (including shock) UAVs, that won the victory in it.

UAVs "on the rise"

The global drone market is booming. Its largest players: the United States, Israel, China and, oddly enough, Turkey, which has never been distinguished by serious military developments, are vying with each other to offer a wide range of their UAVs at international exhibitions. Although it is worth noting that Washington's global position as an exporter in this area has been significantly shaken after the refusal to sell the most modern models of its drones to anyone other than official London. It is clear that this is primarily a planned policy, in which security issues meet commercial interests in the best traditions of American capitalism.

So, on the one hand, according to The Wall Street Journal, Americans fear that their drones can be used to suppress mass civil unrest or simply fall into the wrong hands. Great Britain, on the other hand, is a key and in every sense a "nuclear" ally of the United States, which will not go anywhere from them. However, on the other hand - well, the Pentagon needs someone to fuse their old drones, right? And for those buyers considering buying an American military equipment primarily in a political vein, it is more important, in principle, to regularly purchase at least something from Washington along the military line than to seek the supply of the latest samples of engineering thought.

Although it is the UAV as a branch of military equipment that is unique in this case. As you know, the largest arms exporting countries often practice the sale of obsolete weapons abroad. However, in the case of such a dynamically developing area as drones, the purchase of models that do not meet modern requirements simply makes no sense. Unmanned aerial vehicles are one of the most high-tech types of weapons and the rate of their obsolescence significantly exceeds that in other branches of military equipment. The reason is simple: the more weapons are "tied" to information technology, the closer the pace of its modernization to those of the IT sphere. And drones, which are as closely related to artificial intelligence technologies as possible, are here, of course, at the forefront of military thought. So selling outdated models in the case of drones in a fair competition will not work. There is too much competition in the international market, too many players and too quickly drones become obsolete.

That is why it is important that Russia today is simultaneously developing several UAV models. The laws of any, not only military equipment, state: the stronger the competition in the domestic market, the higher the competitiveness of the country's products in the foreign market. So the mass production of shock drones may well be considered another test of the military-industrial complex of the Russian Federation for compliance with modern realities. Although it is already obvious that Russian attack UAVs have every chance of taking a leading position in the international arena. In the end, if the domestic military-industrial complex is capable of producing world-class anti-aircraft missile systems (take at least the same S-400, which Turkey prefers, despite NATO membership and the indignation of the United States), then Russia certainly has problems with the production of unmanned aerial vehicles. shouldn't be. The only question is to set a goal and systematically achieve it. And in this case, the Orion and Okhotnik developed by the Russian defense industry are, first of all, a movement in the right direction.