“Shameful Loss of Russian Air Force”: A rare Russian drone has fallen on the territory of Ukraine

According to Forbes analyst David Axe, the Russian Federation has only a handful of such drones, and now one of them — or at least its wreckage — is in Ukraine’s hands.

“They’ll take it apart down to the last screw and, of course, get to know its rich internal contents,” Russian Telegram channel Fighterbomber complained.

As D.Axe points out, it is not yet clear what caused the drone to go down. A video of the downing of the drone shows the military aircraft firing a missile at the Okhotnik and knocking it to the ground.

The analyst notes that although the possibility that the Okhotnik was shot down by a Ukrainian fighter cannot be ruled out, the option that it was shot down by the Russians themselves cannot be ruled out either.

“If the Okhotnik had malfunctioned, the Russians could have decided to shoot it down rather than risk it crash-landing on Ukrainian territory,” the analyst writes.

At the same time, there is a high probability that Okhotnik encountered powerful radio interference, since the drone is likely not fully autonomous and depends on a stable connection with operators on the ground, writes D. Axe.

“This is a shameful loss for the stricken Russian air force, which has already lost more than 100 combat aircraft, including at least one Su-57 fighter, to Ukrainian weapons, missiles and drones,” he stressed.

He notes that the Okhotnik can theoretically penetrate enemy defenses and carry ammunition. This drone belongs to the same class as China’s Tian Ying drone and the US Air Force’s Lockheed Martin RQ-170 reconnaissance drone.

While the likelihood that the Okhotnik will eventually enter service with the Russian Air Force is high, it is not yet clear whether Russia has produced enough Okhotniks and conducted enough tests to fully equip them to the frontline.

“Maybe this drone is still in development. Although it is not uncommon for the Russian Air Force to send test aircraft into combat zones to collect data under real-world conditions, losing a rare and expensive test aircraft during combat trials is a huge setback.