Drones

Russia’s New Stealth Drone, Su-57 Jet Team to Destroy Adversary’s Air Defenses

Russia’s Kronshtadt Group has presented a mock-up of a new stealth combat drone named Thunder ("Grom") that can team up with a manned jet like Su-57 to break through enemy air defense systems.

As promised, we are showing new promising unmanned aerial vehicles "Sirius" and "Thunder." Next to them are mock-ups of aviation weapons developed by Kronstadt and other Russian enterprises specifically for these UAVs, Kronshtadt company announced on its official Facebook account on August 24.

Some of the munitions displayed include the KAB-500, MAM-L, KAB-250-LG-E and Izdelie 85.

Military observers speculated the Thunder to be smaller, cheaper, “loyal wingman” alternative to Sukhoi Su-57’s Okhotnik. In September 2019, the Okhotnik performed a flight together with a Su-57 fifth-generation fighter. The drone maneuvered in the air in the automated mode at an altitude of around 1,600m and its flight lasted over 30 minutes.

“The Thunder is capable of working in conjunction with manned aircraft overcome enemy air defenses. The drone will open the air defense, find the radar stations and destroy them,” Vladimir Voronov, director of the Kronshtadt Advanced Research Center, was quoted as saying by Interfax during the ongoing Army-2020 Forum.