A missile couldn’t erase the Russian drone’s embarrassing stealth secret

Shooting down its own brand new drone on video as it spiraled out of control over Ukraine could be one of the biggest embarrassments the Russian air force has ever suffered. But worse could come.

The Sukhoi S-70 Okhotnik-B (“Hunter-B”) was a prototype stealth combat drone, a “loyal wingman” designed to operate alongside the new Sukhoi Su-57 “Felon” fighter. After it was shot down by the accompanying Su-57, the Russians fired an Iskander missile at the crash hangar to destroy the S-70 wreckage. Images show that the Ukrainians had taken important components for analysis long before the rocket attack.

This analysis is likely to be very embarrassing for the Russians – but perhaps not for the reasons you might expect.

Stealth: The Darkest Art

The technology used to reduce an aircraft’s visibility on radar is technically called “signature reduction” and commonly referred to as stealth. While the general approach has been known since World War II, the idea of ​​specifically designing an aircraft that would be virtually invisible to radar was revolutionary and top secret.

Prototypes of the stealthy F-117 Nighthawk flew in the 1970s, but it was not until 1980 that Defense Secretary Harold Brown officially announced the existence of the new “stealth technology.”

Nobody knew what the new stealth aircraft looked like, and for years rumors circulated about the appearance of a mysterious “F-19 Stealth Fighter”. Several models were allegedly released based on insider information; None of them looked like the F-117, suggesting an active misinformation campaign.

In July 1986, an F-117 piloted by Major Ross Mulhare of the 4450th Tactical Group crashed into a hill just inside the Sequoia National Forest, killing Mulhare instantly. There was great media interest in the mysterious aircraft, which was probably a secret prototype.

The F-117 was completely destroyed and a massive cleanup operation was launched. A 300 meter area around the crash site was cordoned off and any trace of wreckage was removed. Even the ground was searched for buried fragments.

After all traces were removed, the Air Force dismantled a crashed F-101 Voodoo that had been in storage for 20 years and distributed the parts at the crash site. The media, including a crew from Bakersfield’s KERO-TV, was then given access and allowed to take photos of the fake debris.

The F-117 was not publicly recognized until 1988 and its appearance was not revealed until 1990.

Thirteen years after the Mulhare crash, when an F-117 was shot down by Serbian forces, many commentators expected the USAF to bomb the wreckage to preserve its secrets. However, at this point, the F-117’s stealth technology, developed some twenty years earlier, was considered obsolete and no effort was made to destroy it. Parts of the aircraft with once-secret radar absorption material are on display at the Aviation Museum in Belgrade.

Russian stealth advances

Stealth is achieved primarily through careful design of the airframe, avoiding straight lines and sharp corners that reflect radar. However, it is also important to ensure that radar reflection at the surface is minimized.

One of the original camouflage coatings, or Radar Absorbing Materials (RAM), was a special paint called “Iron Ball” that contained metal particles. The right particle size and shape of the right metal can absorb radio waves and dissipate them as heat instead of reflecting them.

Stealth aircraft may also contain radar-absorbing structures, honeycombs of material that capture and disperse radar waves.

Finding an effective combination of materials and structures to minimize the visibility of specific radar wavelengths from specific directions is a tricky and complex discipline with many trade-offs. New metamaterials that can in principle be used to create an “invisibility cloak” are widely used in current stealth research.

Russia initially paid little attention to stealth technology, but progress has been made in this area in recent years and the new Su-57 is described as a stealth fighter with a much smaller radar signature than previous generations. According to Russian officials, the S-70 drone is “manufactured using special materials and coatings that make it virtually invisible to radars.”

Dead drones tell stories

After shooting down the S-70, the Russians hit the crash site with an Iskander ballistic missile. These missiles are rare and expensive, and keeping them out of the campaign against Ukraine’s cities suggests that this was a high-priority target. There are several reasons why the Russians want to prevent the West from recovering the drone wreckage.

The least likely scenario is that NATO has technology that it could reverse engineer and use in its own aircraft. No one seriously believes that Russia is ahead in this area, and even Russia’s optimistic claims about the Su-57 suggest that it is far less stealthy than Western aircraft.

The greater risk is that Western engineers could figure out which wavelengths the S-70 is supposed to intercept, from which angles, and from which angles it will still be visible. This information could help nullify the S-70’s stealth capability. Given that it is a relatively large, slow and expensive drone, it will be far less useful if its stealth is compromised.

More seriously, the S-70 was co-developed with the Su-57, Russia’s flagship next-generation fighter, and likely uses the same stealth materials and techniques. If the West can see how the S-70 stealth works, it could get a pretty good insight into how to defeat the Su-57 too.

But there is a more likely explanation for what the Russians are really trying to hide. And that means the Emperor wears no clothes and there is no cloaking technology.

The Great Stealth Hoax

We’ve already seen some signs that Russian camouflage is not up to scratch. In 2023, Ukrainian engineers were able to analyze the remains of a Russian Kh-101/X-101 long-range cruise missile, which is said to have an anti-radar coating. According to the Ukrainian news site Defense Express, this is not the case.

“The research shows that, despite Russian claims, Kh-101 is not covered with a special paint that reduces radiation reflection,” Defense News said. “All Russian stories about the RAM coating on the Kh-101 hull turned out to be pure propaganda.”

When the Russians recently released images of the new Su-57, Western analysts were also appalled by their crude processing. Stealth aircraft must have a completely smooth surface, as even minor protrusions can significantly affect radar returns. The B-2 bomber is notorious for its demanding stealth maintenance requirements, requiring the application of radar-absorbing tape to certain surfaces and tolerances in the thousandths of an inch. The Su-57 has bare screw heads and rivets all over the wing and fuselage, indicating poor stealth properties.

Given Russian culture, it is quite possible that even high-ranking commanders are unaware of these shortcomings in their stealth technology. No one ever wants to report bad news, and Russian defense companies know how to pay procurement officials all the way to the top.

Russian leaders may soon find out that their expensive, much-touted invisible drone is actually not stealthy at all. And they will find out by reading about it in the public media.