According to an article published by the website Izvestia.ru, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the first units equipped with the S70 Okhotnik-B drone will be operational from 2024, and will be mainly deployed in the western (facing NATO) and northern (facing the Caucasus) military regions. It also appears that the Russian Air Force General Staff would consider replacing its “light fighter” component, currently equipped with nearly 200 MiG-29s, with this combat drone, expected to become an essential element of the offensive system. Russian air force.
Indeed, if the article specifies, not surprisingly, that the Okhotnik was intended to intervene directly against the anti-aircraft defenses and in the depth of the enemy system by using cruise missiles and guided bombs, it also indicates, and more surprisingly, that it will also be engaged against aviation, the drone being able, and this is news, to carry and deploy air-to-air missiles. According to information transmitted by Russia, and not verified, the S-70 Okhotnik B combat drone, which weighs nearly 20 tons at takeoff, would have a very large range of 3000 km, and could carry almost 4 tons of various weapons in its 2 holds, at transonic speed. However, we do not know what sensors it will have to carry out all of these missions, and in particular the air-air engagements in question.
We must therefore wait to see how the program will evolve in order to deduce the missions which will be assigned to the Okhotnik, and its capacity to effectively replace the Mig-29 which, even today, provides numerous services to the Russian air forces. . However, these statements do not bode well for the Mig-35, which its manufacturer still hopes to see selected to replace the Mig-29s which are reaching the limit of their potential. But it seems that the Russian air forces are gradually, but definitely, abandoning this notion of light fighter, in a quite logical way however, considering the immensities of the Russian territory, and the missions requiring increasing autonomy entrusted to it. .