whoa, lets now figure out to which ts super-cruise might be needed?
Super cruise would allow it to move around the battle space faster, and would also make it a much more difficult target to chase down... very simply to chase down a target moving at mach 1.3 plus you need to engage AB, which greatly reduces your flight range and time on station... whether you are in a Typhoon or Rafale or F-35 or F-22 your legs suddenly got much shorter... which is a good thing for the enemy (Russia).
For any missiles you might be launching speed as well as altitude add range and performance to any missile you happen to launch which is also good news.
OK thingy is huge. but such huge thingy and payload representing ~10% of MTOW ? somehow I dont see it.
We really don't know what their plans are for it... is it an AWACS type platform that is mostly radar that operates in L band so is hard to detect... most NATO aircraft could detect an L band signal but their L band sensors are datalinks and are not directional so they could not locate it even if it was blasting out megawatts of energy...
If that is the case it could fly high and basically act as a stealth AWACS locating enemy aircraft and passing such info to Su-35s and Su-57s which only use their L band radars for the intercept.
Or it might carry 3 tons of R-77 missiles from high altitude... that could be up to 15 or so missiles ready to fire... or perhaps 4-6 X R-37Ms... two or three per Su-57 would add up... one with 4 R-37M missiles and two with a total of 30 R-77 missiles that are supporting each Su-57 or Su-35 which will be carrying their own missiles... sounds like a useful way to blunt an F-35 and F-22 attack from NATO with perhaps 2,500 F-35s.
Obviously coordinated with ground forces with S-350s, S-400s, S-500s etc etc....
you men then best fighter in the world?
The F-35 is renowned for putting the dog in dogfighter...
or use DEW to protect Russian manned fighters from incoming AAMs? MiG-31 s missile truck or "point" interceptor sure, but to chase anything still to slow. Unless it relly flies 2000km/h
The purpose of MiG-31s in this scenario is to shoot down the force multipliers like AWACS and AEW aircraft as well as JSTARS and Growlers and other support aircraft as well as inflight refuelling tankers which the F-22 and F-35 will be relying upon... this drone could use stealth where the MiG-31 would use speed to get close enough to launch an R-37M missile at them...
It would free up more MiG-31s for defending from strategic threats and naval threats too.
It can be used in this way but generally speaking... why make from scratch a wing unmaneuvarebale slow design and use it in any AA mode while you can make a G capable drone? T-50 is already there a single engine drone version could have probably been quickly developed. The primary role of this drone can not logically be a BVR fighter.
It is a flying wing... its features support endurance and range and altitude, so we are talking about wide apeture radar along its wing leading edge and the capacity to carry missiles in a fuselage that does not need to hold two engines and a pilot.
If you want manouver performance than an unmanned variant of the Su-57 would be a much better solution as it is already designed for manouver... has the extra energy of two engines but without a pilot to limit g performance and its aerodynamic performance has already been tested during development of the Su-57 anyway.
Not quite seeing this. High value aircraft of NATO would be hidden deep behind cover, the best plane to go for them remains the MiG-31 with its speed and supersonic range (it is very difficult to engage it), maybe Su-57 depending on a number of parameters which we don't know yet. The Okhotnik should not be expected to be "invisible", at high altitude it would be very vulnerable. Not saying it cannot support in some other role, but the best way I can imagine it is doing low altitude strike
Vulnerable to what?
At that altitude it could carry R-37M or some future long range scramjet powered long range AAM... what exactly can outrange it?
I would suspect it will be using wing mounted L band AESA radars the full span of the front of the aircraft that could scan continuously for NATO stealth aircraft... NATO L band capabilities are basically datalinked based and not directional so even if they detected the signal they would have no idea where it was coming from... meanwhile it has a high power L band radar scanning for stealthy NATO items... drones, missiles, aircraft etc... with a 3 ton payload it might have up to 15 R-77 variant medium range missiles or 4-6 R-37M missiles on board... not only could it provide early warning of stealthy aircraft it could also fire the first shots to blunt any attack and sneak forward and try to pick off inflight refuelling tankers and AWACS and JSTARS platforms lurking in the rear...
Russia is developing their own Harpy like kamikaze drones. thumbsup Big headache for US air defense. They will be now also on receiving end of such swarm of kamikaze drones.
If you watched that video you might recognise the drone itself is the same Zala drone shown with the Ka-52... a large box is carried under a weapon pylon that holds 4-5 of these drones vertically... if the airspace ahead is seriously contested one of these drones can be released to scout ahead and clearly after identifying threats and targets it can ram a suitable target and destroy it in a kamikazi attack... would be rather useful for a scout helo...
We know why Russia has a UAV "gap", it was actually abiding by the INF treaty and the USA wasn't. Now that Uncle Scam has killed the INF,
Russia's hands are untied and surprise surprise we get a flying wing heavy UCAV. Russia is only getting started so don't discount it.
Of course in a few years time when Russia has similar murder drones to the west then the west might start demanding regulation and limitations and treaties regarding their use... because no rules need apply when the west uses them for good but what if Russia uses them for evil...