New images surface of massive Russian stealth drone ‘Hunter’

Great Power War ^ | 2/2/19 | USA Features

[SleeperCatcher]

Last summer, the world got its first glimpses of a massive, 20-ton stealth drone fighter being developed by Russia when defense industry sources passed them along to the Russian state-owned news outlet TASS.

Though the aircraft (shown above) “has not yet taken full shape, its main features are already known,” a defense official told the newswire.

Since TASS is completely run by the Kremlin, it’s safe to say that the images were ‘leaked’ on purpose.

Since TASS is completely run by the Kremlin, it’s safe to say that the images were ‘leaked’ on purpose.

The defense official noted further:

“First of all, it should be unmanned and capable of performing any combat task in an autonomous regime. In this sense, the stealth drone will become the prototype of the sixth generation fighter jet,’ the source said, adding that the drone will be able to “take off, fulfill its objectives and return to the airfield.”

“However, it will not receive the function of decision-making regarding the use of weapons – this will be decided by a human,” he said.

Now, as LiveJournal now reports, brand-new images of the first prototype of this sixth-gen unmanned reconnaissance-strike drone, nicknamed “Hunter,” have been taken at the airdrome of the Novosibirsk Aviation Plant.

[gaijin]

Looks like a 500% bigger UCASS, now mostly canceled, I think.

Or maybe we turned it into a Navy tanker.

[BenLurkin]

Ping

[the_daug]

looks similar to the drone the Iranians downed during Obama Administration.

[laplata]

looks similar to the drone the Iranians downed during Obama Administration.

><

But many times larger. We underestimate the Russians at our own peril.

[jdsteel]

So it’s make believe.

[FreedomPoster]

Inertial navigation is pretty good.

[gaijin]

HERE is what Obama donated to the Iranians:

It's the RQ-170 "Beast of Kandahar".

[JD_UTDallas]

three curent technology make your argument false. First one is steerable phased array null producing antennas of a size to have half degree bandwidths all jammers will be on the ground or at low altitude in the air. the signals come from space the jamming will be nulled out.

Second chip scale atomic clocks already in production render most jamming irrelevant when paired with laser ring gyros and aromic accelerometers. modern chip scale IMU of government grade can keep a 15m CEP for at least 6 jrs the actual figure is classified. for comparison submarine imu/ins keep 50 meter CEPs for WEEKS on end it is simply how sensitive your gyros are, how accurate your atomic clock and how sensitive your 6 axis accelerometers are. the current crop of atomic gyros and acels rival anything mechanical from the SINS era at least the classified not detuned versions.

the third tech is infrared solid state celestial object sensors with one arc second or better precision. with an on board atomic.time piece one arcsecond celestial sights are 30meters in 3 axis positioning with full daylight capabilities in the infrared band at sea level without clouds. since drones can climb to altitude they can pop above the cloud deck get a celestial fix for the ins/imu at 30 meters or better CEP and make for the deck for the next 6 to 12 hours. I hold a graduate certification in geospatial intelligence from the national geospatial intelligence foundation just fyi.

[gaijin]

HERE is what the Iranians CLAIMED they cloned off of our crashed RQ-170:

My guess, if there really IS anything under the aircraft shell, is that they passed it off to the Chinese, then they got back whatever the Chinese SAID they made from it.

One is beat up, the other isn't, so my guess is the crashed original is the one you see on the right of the photo.

[gaijin]

For compairison here is the US Navy X-47b which, after lots of budgeting arguments, was turned into a tanker:

I don't know how in hell you make a STEALTHY re-fueling drogue, or how an X-47 with a standard drogue remains stealthy, but....there it is.

OK here is a photo before they re-missioned the drone:

My blind guess is that the Russian drone is not based on the RQ-170.

The Russian "Hunter" more closely resembles the X-47b than it does the RQ-170.

[_Jim]

re: “First one is steerable phased array null producing antennas of a size to have half degree bandwidths all jammers will be on the ground or at low altitude in the air. the signals come from space the jamming will be nulled out.”

Overstep on this one; sidelobes (IMPOSSIBLE TO MAKE NONEXISTENT) and reflections from other A/C in the area are your downfall; a strong enough jammer (easy to do nowadays) and your “margins” are gone. A view of three sats gives you 2-D position, 4 sats are needed for 3-D, and these are required to be “seen” (code coming in) continuously for updated position calcs. This effectively negates any sort of highly directional antenna.

Look to have SA kicked in again though (applicable to C/A code; P code is already accessible only via restricted access ‘key’).

[NativeSon]

They reused the “flying wing” prop from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

[Veto!]

My Star Destroyer is "Coral Cookie." What's yours?

[_Jim]

re: “. Also, one EMP and all satellite boards are fried in that quadrant of the Hemisphere. POP. ( along with the power grid, ha!)”

Doubtful; re-analysis of the available info comes up with a lesser figure for EMP field strength and hence loss of chance of totally “destroyed” infrastructure.

See paper by Mario Rabinowitz of EPRI for details.

[CJ Wolf]

Grey scrapple

[JD_UTDallas]

GPS birds are hardened for not.only EMP in the upper atmosphere which is the EMP most people think of with megaton detonation at a few hundred miles. They are also hardened to close range Xray burst from nukes put into near their 12000 MILE high orbits. low altitude atmospheric EMPs are a nonevent for.GPS birds. GENIII gps birds carry sensors to track the position of nuclear blasts on the surface of the planet as part of our counter strike SOP, they also carry airforce satcoms for the EAM system those birds are designed from the get go to survive a nuclear war. gen3 birds also do not need ground control updates for 180 days of autonomous constellation signals integrity. this means even if every human on the surface is dead the GPS birds will keep sending.viable navcom for at keat 180 days over our scorched planet.