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Detailed New Photos Of Russia's 'Hunter' Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle Emerge: Our Analysis - russian Okhotnik.jpg ...
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http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone...e-our-analysis Yesterday, we reported on what appeared to be the first image of Russia's much-touted, but never yet to be seen Okhotnik, or Hunter, unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) that had been in development for years and was supposed to start flight testing soon. Now, just a day later, new images have surfaced that offer up a much better look at the aircraft, as well as new insights into the drone's potential capabilities and design limitations. Make sure to read our past piece of Hunter to get up to speed, but suffice it to say that these images show an impressively large UCAV. As you can see, it dwarfs the relatively large snow plow tractor that is pulling it, leaving the impression that it is similar overall in size to a medium weight fighter, although shorter in length and significantly longer in wingspan. Its dimensions appear to be loosely analogous to Northrop Grumman's X-47B, if not larger in terms of wingspan as it doesn't appear to feature the X-47B's 'cranked kite' planform. The X-47B was roughly 38 feet long with a 62 foot wingspan. Far more valuable than the forward hemisphere photos is this one from the rear. The aircraft is powered by a full-sized fighter jet engine that could potentially include afterburning capability based on the nozzle installation. This would be helpful for taking off at high gross weights, but beyond that, it would have questionable utility. The engine being used is unknown, but the Saturn AL-31F series used by the Flanker family of aircraft would be a logical choice. It is possible that a derivative of the more powerful AL-41F that is still somewhat in development could be used in the future, which may eliminate the need for an afterburner. ---- Finally, I want to address some questions I have been asked after our first piece regarding how Russia was able to make such an aircraft in the first place. Knowing what we now know from these pictures, I don't see how this is far outside Russia's aerospace capabilities. Nearly every major power is involved with some sort of UCAV program at this time. China has a list of them ongoing and these are just the ones we are allowed to know about. So, it's only logical that Russia, still one of the world's most prolific military aircraft manufacturers, wade into this capability area as well. Flying the aircraft and turning it into a working and effective weapon is another story entirely. Just developing the command and control software and data-link architecture will be a significant and expensive challenge for Russia. But, it is important to remember that Russia was able to examine the RQ-170 Sentinel that fell into Iranian hands. In fact, they likely led the effort to exploit every bit of technology and know-how they could from the Skunk Works-built stealthy flying wing. Do not underestimate how much of an impact this had on their ability to at least know where they needed to invest development dollars to make a similar system of their own a reality one day. With all that said, it's exciting that we are already getting multiple decent quality views of Sukhoi's long-awaited unmanned creation. For now, we will leave the analysis there, but we will update this post throughout the day with new information as it comes available, as well as key takeaways from it. more at http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone...e-our-analysis * |
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