Thread by @vkthakur

The Sukhoi S-70 #Okhotnik UCAV model at #MAKS2019 with stealthy exhaust and the recent announcement by Russian MoD that Okhotniks would be deployed in the East & West of the country by 2024 are significant pointers to Russian thinking on the future of air combat

Giving optionally manned stealth fighters a pass, Russia appears to be embracing unmanned stealth (#Okhotnik) for striking targets in heavily contested airspace & the combination of stealth & EW (#Su57) for defending homeland airspace.

The tight integration of the two platforms under the flying wingman concept makes their combination deadly. Penetrating Raptors would need to pause after first spotting #Su57, to ensure their own presence hasn't been picked by #Okhotniks & relayed to the Su-57s!

Izvestia reports that the #S70 #Okhotnik will carry 4 9-A-7759 "Thunder" precision strike glide bombs (65-km range) / cruise missiles (120-km range) in its internal weapon bay. The drone will operate as Su-57 loyal wingman sites.google.com/site/idpsentin…

Left, Grom E1 (9-A-7759) cruise missile (120-km range) & right Grom E2 (9-A1-7759) glide bomb (65-km range) that are set to equip the Su-57 Felon and its S-70 Okhotnik loyal wingman stealth UCAV at #MAKS2019

As predicted by me through the Sep 18, 2019 tweet in this thread, Russia has started developing the S-70 Okhotnik as a flying wingman. I am tracking the progress of the S-70 as loyal wingman in the following thread.

Russia indicated its intent to incorporate all aspect stealth on the S-70 Okhotnik through the display of this model with a shaped exhaust for rear aspect stealth during MAKS 2019, but no timelines were announced.

This screenshot captured by a Chinese blogger and posted at the link below purportedly shows a shaped nozzle, unreheated variant of the Su-57 AL-41F engine undergoing tests on the Il-76LL testbed. vk.com/milinfolive?w=…

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