Russia’s top secret stealth drone ‘HUNTER’ bomber caught on camera

[KhalaiMakhlooq]

Russia’s top secret stealth drone ‘HUNTER’ bomber caught on camera

25 January 2019 | https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/wo...hotnik-pictures-hunter-vladimir-putin-siberia

RUSSIA’S top secret stealth bomber drone – dubbed Hunter – has been caught on camera for the first time.

Photos reveal the sweeping winged craft being pulled through the snow at an Russian airfield in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk.

It is being dragged by a tractor with a snowplow at the facility of the Novosibirsk Aircraft Production Association.

The futuristic looking aircraft is the understood to the Okhotnik–B – meaning Hunter.

Vladimir Putin’s new toy is a large unmanned bomber that can carry up to two tons of weapons.

The bomber was undergoing ground testing ahead of debut flight last this year.

Hunter is intended to be 34ft in length with a wingspan of 38ft – making it comparable to modern fighter aircraft.

It is intended to be able to fly at speeds of 500 mph at heights of nearly 40,000ft with a range of more than 1,200 miles.

Russian military bosses hope to use the aircraft to bomb enemy air defence batteries

Missiles will also be packed into the bomber’s large internal weapons bay.

Last year, Russian defence chief Alexei Krivoruchko said: “Next year, the Okhotnik will enter trials.

“The work on this project is a priority and it is proceeding at a good level. In the spring, we are expecting the first flight of this drone.

“This is a serious task for us.”

It also reported pictures of Russian Su-57 fighter planes, carrying a new insignia showing the V shape of the Hunter.

Hunter is planned to be invisible to radar with its sleek flying wing design – similar to the US’s much larger B2 bomber.

It comes as military engineers around the world are attempting to develop more sophisticated unmanned weapons.

Drone tanks, warships and bombers are all being rolled out by nations such as the US, China and Russia.

And countermeasures for the aircraft are also being developed so troops can disrupt the signals controlled the unmanned weapons.

Russian state media claimed the Kremlin signed a deal to develop the Okhotnik with the Sukhoi Aircraft Company in 2011.

TASS reported: “The work on the heavy long-range unmanned aerial vehicle is at the concluding stage.

“In particular, work has been completed to create a prototype that will begin test flights this year.

“The work is being carried out at the Novosibirsk-based Chkalov Aviation Plant.”

 

[TheNoob]

That huge *** engine on its back is enough of a heat signature for me to pick it off from a country away.

 

[vostok]

That huge *** engine on its back is enough of a heat signature for me to pick it off from a country away.

They say it will have 2nd stage engine "izdeliye 30" from Su-57.

 

[KhalaiMakhlooq]

Russian Combat Pilots Now Have Deadly AI Wingmen

25 January 2019 | https://www.tomsguide.com/us/russian-hunter-drones,news-29234.html

This is Hunter. It looks like a regular drone, but all hints point at it being a lot more than that.

Hunter seems to be a robotic wingman that flies autonomously side to side with Russian combat jets, with the pilot issuing combat orders to it on the fly.

This is not a new concept. The U.S Air Force hinted at the same idea in this video about the future of air combat (starts at the 3:10 mark):

According to the USAF, sometime in the 2030s, an F-35 pilot would be able to fly with robotic AI-powered wingmen, with the human pilot giving them orders on the fly through wireless electronic communications. The pilot will be able to tell these drones to attack a target on the ground, another plane, or execute defensive maneuvers without putting his or her life on the line.

It seems like the stuff of science fiction movies or games, but that’s what the USAF envisions. And, looking at the coverage by Tom Demerly in The Aviationist, the Russians may be getting to fly them right now.

Demerly points at two major hints. The first is this photo of a Sukhoi Su-57. On its tail you can see the shapes of that human-piloted combat jet followed by the Hunter, both connected with a lighting bolt:

This seems to imply a wireless connection between the two planes, which may work in the same fashion as the concept portrayed in the USAF “future forward” video.

The other clear hint is the pixel camouflage in the shape of the Hunter drone you can see in the Sukho above. Obviously, not only do the Russians want to have robotic AI wingmen, but they want to have their human-piloted jet fighters confused with the drones from the ground.

I can’t help but to think of the double-fighter in Galaga, the wingmen that you could fly with in the classic 1981 video game.

Except this is not an arcade game. Sure, some will say that Russian military technology is always half baked, but recent developments — like the invulnerable 20 Mach hypersonic nuclear missile — show that things may have changed. As a U.S. Air Force General and Commander of the US Strategic Command John E Hyten told National Interest about that missile: “We don’t have any defense that could deny the employment of such a weapon against us.”

Seems like the Russians are not stopping at deadly unkillable missiles. On the other hand, it doesn’t seem that they need any missiles or robotic planes to destroy us, anyway.

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Micro Drone Swarm Simulation

 

[LKJ86]

That huge *** engine on its back is enough of a heat signature for me to pick it off from a country away.

The drone is just a technology demonstrator, just like what China did in 2013.

 

[KhalaiMakhlooq]

The drone is just a technology demonstrator, just like what China did in 2013.
View attachment 535191

Yes, China has similar tech

In a major breakthrough, China has unveiled a formidable new high-altitude drone that could give its military a significant advantage.

Designed to operate in “near space,” 12.5 miles above sea level or higher, China’s new drones can break through air defenses, avoid radar detection, and collect valuable intelligence while staying well beyond the range of anti-aircraft fire.

Operating at these heights has been a challenge that has long eluded engineers. Dubbed a drone “death zone” as the air at this elevation makes it difficult to generate lift and extremely low temperatures cause electrical equipment like batteries to fail.

Until now, the U.S. military’s RQ-4 Global Hawk has been the highest-flying drone, operating at altitudes of 60,000 feet. But in a recent test, Chinese engineers surpassed that, flying an experimental drone at 82,000 feet.

At a research facility in Inner Mongolia, two drones were attached to a weather balloon and deployed at 30,000 feet and 82,000 feet. Roughly the size of a bat and weighing about as much as a soccer ball, the drones were launched by an electromagnetic pulse sling shot that catapulted them out at 60 mph.


The drones coasted to targets over sixty miles away, automatically adjusting their flight path and sending data back to a ground station. Most notably, due to their small size, they were barely detectable on radar during their test flight.

The drones were equipped with several sensors, including a terrain mapping device and an electromagnetic signal detector that would allow it to pinpoint military troops. However, the drones could not carry cameras, as that would require a bulky antenna to transmit photo or video data, which would throw off its delicate aerodynamics.


Its wings and body are seamlessly blended into a flat, tailless design that generates lift in the thin atmosphere of near space. Some models, like the two recently tested, do not have engines, instead drifting to their targets like a glider.

“The goal of our research is to launch hundreds of these drones in one shot, like letting loose a bee or ant colony,” Professor Yang Yanchu, the head of the project from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told the South China Morning Post .

Militaries have long sought to take advantage of near space as it offers an opportunity to gather intelligence over large-areas without the costs or vulnerabilities of satellites.

As advanced militaries increasingly rely on satellites for everything from intelligence to communications to missile guidance, they have become high-priority targets during wartime, and are difficult to defend. Therefore, having near space vehicles capable of gathering intelligence, relaying data, and serving as a backup or even replacement satellites would be invaluable.

But so far no country has been able to operate in near space, as most aircraft cannot fly at such high altitudes and it is too low for satellites.

China has been actively developing new technology that would allow it to operate in this largely uncontested new frontier with its Scientific Experiment System of Near Space, a pilot program led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

In June, China test flew a solar-powered drone at 65,000 feet. The massive drone, dubbed the Caihong-T4, has a wingspan of 130 ft and is designed to stay aloft for months at a time with minimal supervision.

Not to be outdone, NASA currently holds the record with its Helios Prototype, whichsoared to nearly 97,000 feet on solar power.

But unlike these prototypes and current high-altitude drones which cost millions of dollars, China’s newest high-flying drone would only cost a few hundred yuan.

With these cheap, stealthy high-altitude drones, China has leapt ahead in the near space race.

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/america-no-match-chinas-new-space-drones-23039

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Drone/Swarm Wars
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The Navy Wants Swarm Weapons That Can Do Something Amazing

This would allow a drone “to ‘dock’ on a power line in an urban environment, scavenging magnetic energy as a means to trickle-charge its onboard batteries prior to mission continuation.

The U.S. Navy wants to develop drones that are powered by harvesting “battlefield energy.”

Which is a more charitable way of describing a drone that flies by stealing electricity from power lines.

The problem is that future conflicts are likely to feature clouds of small drones, whether operating in swarms to overwhelm an enemy, or a mini-drone carried in a soldier’s pocket that flies ahead to scout out a building. But tiny drones have tiny batteries measured in thirty minutes or so of flight, and the battlefield is not the place to search for an electrical outlet to recharge.

“The infrastructure to manage a future fleet of sUAS [small UAVs] in the field under austere conditions may be daunting considering the magnitude of battery recharging needs,” the navy notes. “It is also desirable to simultaneously increase mission duration and persistence; therefore, the ability to scavenge power directly from the battlefield would be an important military technology with other dual-use civilian applications.”

But what if the fighting is in a city, where there will likely be plenty of electrical poles and power lines?

This would allow a drone “to ‘dock’ on a power line in an urban environment, scavenging magnetic energy as a means to trickle-charge its onboard batteries prior to mission continuation, could provide significant tactical benefits,” according to the navy research solicitation , which is looking for answers from industry and academia. “If the energy scavenging source is collocated at the mission area, full mission persistence might be achieved and the micro- and small UAS may never need to return to base.”

Remarkable is the amount of energy that’s floating around a battlefield. “The types of energy harvesting that fall into this category are broad, and include vibrational energy, simple mechanical energy, and electromagnetic energy,” says the navy. “Sources of electromagnetic energy that is abundant and available for harvesting and conversion include high-voltage substations, transformers, and alternating current transmission line (i.e., power lines).”

High-voltage substations on the power grid generate AC electric field strengths that are “comparable to solar panels operating on a cloudy day.” As if that wasn’t tempting enough for drone designers fretting over how maximize the juice that keeps their progeny flying, the navy also suggests that wireless sensors could be placed around these power nodes to also siphon off energy to keep their batteries topped off.

All of which conjures images of flocks of drones hanging from electrical lines like pigeons. It sounds comical, but it actually revives an age-old concept. Napoleon’s armies were legendary for their ability to “live off the land,” foregoing the need for cumbersome supply by looting food and supplies from the regions they passed through.

A drone that can recharge its batteries from an enemy’s energy sources will have enough juice to conduct operations for as long as it is mechanically able. All at the enemy’s expense.

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New Training Simulator for Drone Swarm Attack
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A new target system that allows anti-aircraft gunners to practice repelling an attack by a swarm of drones, is developed by the Russian Kupol Electro-Mechanical Factory.

According to Kupol Director for MIlitary-Technical Cooperation and Defense Procurement, Igor Ivanov, “The specific feature [of the Adyutant system that simulates a swarm of drones] is that under the control of one ground-based command post, two operators can simultaneously launch up to six air targets and operate them in the single field. That is, we create a target swarm consisting of various types of targets.”. according to tass.com.

The target system employs different kinds of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), including drones with various characteristics, that might help simulate an air situation maximally close to a real combat environment.
“Some fly low, others fly high, quickly or slowly and so on. This helps create the effect of a situation maximally close to a real combat,” he said.

Initially, the system was being developed for the combat firing practice of the crews of Tor air defense missile complexes. However, in the process of the system’s development, the engineers found broader application for the training simulator.

“When we got the result, we realized that this system is useful not only for the Tor. It is necessary for all the systems, from shoulder-fired air defense weapons to short- and medium-range complexes and recently we practiced using it as a simulator for long-range systems in the close-in destruction area,” the project’s director said.

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It’s Now Possible To Telepathically Communicate with a Drone Swarm
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DARPA’s new research in brain-computer interfaces is allowing a pilot to control multiple simulated aircraft at once.

A person with a brain chip can now pilot a swarm of drones — or even advanced fighter jets, thanks to research funded by the U.S. military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.

The work builds on research from 2015, which allowed a paralyzed woman to steer a virtual F-35 Joint Strike Fighter with only a small, surgically-implantable microchip. On Thursday, agency officials announced that they had scaled up the technology to allow a user to steer multiple jets at once.

“As of today, signals from the brain can be used to command and control … not just one aircraft but three simultaneous types of aircraft,” said Justin Sanchez, who directs DARPA’s biological technology office, at the Agency’s 60th-anniversary event in Maryland.

More importantly, DARPA was able to improve the interaction between pilot and the simulated jet to allow the operator, a paralyzed man named Nathan, to not just send but receive signals from the craft.

“The signals from those aircraft can be delivered directly back to the brain so that the brain of that user [or pilot] can also perceive the environment,” said Sanchez. “It’s taken a number of years to try and figure this out.”

In essence, it’s the difference between having a brain joystick and having a real telepathic conversation with multiple jets or drones about what’s going on, what threats might be flying over the horizon, and what to do about them. “We’ve scaled it to three [aircraft], and have full sensory [signals] coming back. So you can have those other planes out in the environment and then be detecting something and send that signal back into the brain,” said Sanchez.

The experiment occured a “handful of months ago,” he said.

It’s another breakthrough in the rapidly advancing field of brain-computer interfaces, or BCIs, for a variety of purposes. The military has been leading interesting research in the field since at least 2007,. And in 2012, DARPA issued a $4 million grant to build a non-invasive “synthetic telepathy” interface by placing sensors close to the brain’s motor centers to pick up electrical signals — non-invasively, over the skin.

But the science has advanced rapidly in recent years, allowing for breakthroughs in brain-based communication, control of prosthetic limbs, and even memory repair.

 

[vostok]

 

[Oublious]

Ther is not much weapon to carry in the weapon bay. All the Russian missiles are to big, only air to air missiles so what is good for?

 

[Yongpeng Sun-Tastaufen]

Ther is not much weapon to carry in the weapon bay. All the Russian missiles are to big, only air to air missiles so what is good for?

Bomb Qaeda. I bet it also has under wing pylons.

 

[Oublious]

Bomb Qaeda. I bet it also has under wing pylons.

wooow...

 

[ptldM3]

Ther is not much weapon to carry in the weapon bay. All the Russian missiles are to big, only air to air missiles so what is good for?

When did you ever see how big the weapons bay are? For all we know they can have a spinning carousel bay like other Russian bombers. For reference most people didn't think it was possible to fit anything besides medium range air-to-air missiles in the weapons bays of the SU-57 yet they can fit cruise missiles.



Russia also has a lot of new small munitions for its combat drones. Even if Russia didn't develop new munitions i think you fail to grasp how large the drone is and how much room it has.

 

[Oublious]

When did you ever see how big the weapons bay are? For all we know they can have a spinning carousel bay like other Russian bombers. For reference most people didn't think it was possible to fit anything besides medium range air-to-air missiles in the weapons bays of the SU-57 yet they can fit cruise missiles.



Russia also has a lot of new small munitions for its combat drones. Even if Russia didn't develop new munitions i think you fail to grasp how large the drone is and how much room it has.



View attachment 536776

Russian stand off missile are to big for that drone, and using other smart munitions is wasted for that ucav.

 

[ptldM3]

Russian stand off missile are to big for that drone, and using other smart munitions is wasted for that ucav.

Yea, a drone that weighs 20+ tons, has a 63 foot wingspan and a length of 50 feet can't fit this:

Sukhoi must have used some magic wizardry to fit X-59 cruise missiles in th SU-57 which has a much smaller space for weapons

 

[Oublious]

Yea, a drone that weighs 20+ tons, has a 63 foot wingspan and a length of 50 feet can't fit this:


View attachment 536864 View attachment 536865




Sukhoi must have used some magic wizardry to fit X-59 cruise missiles in th SU-57 which has a much smaller space for weapons

Looks like a project, serial production?

 

[ptldM3]

Looks like a project, serial production?

Meant to operate and communicate with the SU-57.