A new combat drone prototype by Russia named as S-70 Okhotnik, will be capable of attacking both, the ground and the air targets, and is expected to enter the Russian Military service by the year 2024. The drone escorts will drop the bomb even if the Pilot picks the targets in the combat flight of Russia.The target selection will be a human fighter pilot inside the cockpit of a Su-57, which is Russia’s fifth-generation fighter, and is also a counterpart to the US’s F-35.
The combat drone is used as to extend the power and reach of an inhabited fighter, on the other hand, it still keeps a human being, as in charge of taking decisions for firing. This practice is followed by every military official of each country. If this project of combat drone works properly, then it will not be only limited to the military of the United States or its allies.
Samuel Bendett, an analyst at the Center for Naval Analysis and adjunct senior fellow at the Center for New American Security said that the Su-57 and Okhotnik teaming is the first of its kind in the Russian military. This invention will definitely change how Russia plans its warfighting, at level of campaigns and at the smaller level of battles. The Okhotnik and the Su-57 will share their targeting and sensor data with each other in order to give rights to each aircraft to know everything captured by the other’s sensors.
Each Okhotnik can carry up to almost 4,400 pounds of Bombs, which as compared to US service, the Mq-9 Reaper can deliver. Test was taken with the Okhotnik once by dropping a bomb at a target, at a range north of the Caspian Sea. At the test, the Okhotnik carried up to 1,100 pounds of bomb. After the successful test of bombing, it was decided that the drone can offset the cost of guidance systems on a bomb.
Even if the bombs are much cheaper than the planes that drop them, the difference in the cost between unguided free-fall bombs and guided munitions is steep. The guidance system that is used to target the bomb includes GPS, inertial guidance, and tail fin controls, that take the bomb towards its target, in full speed and all of it gets destroyed in the blast.
