Sukhoi S-71 Remote Carrier "UAV"

[windcalm]

Sukhoi Unveils Modified S-71 Attack UAV Concepts | Aviation Week Network

The Russian aircraft manufacturer is pursuing attack and logistics UAV concepts that have evolved because of the war in Ukraine.

aviationweek.com

Sukhoi has received approval from the Russian Defense Ministry to begin producing the S-71 air-launched UAV, which has undergone significant design changes based on lessons from the Russia-Ukraine conflict. There are two versions of the S-71: the S-71K "Kovyor," which operates like a guided air-to-ground missile, and the more advanced S-71M "Monokhrom," which is an autonomous UAV.

The design changes to the S-71 have focused on increasing range and reducing radar cross-section to improve survivability against air defenses. The original multimission design was simplified for easier mass production. The S-71 began captive-carry trials in April 2024 at Russia’s flight research center in Zhukovsky, with test flights involving the Su-57 fighter.

The S-71 has a trapezoidal fuselage for stealth, a foldable swept wing, and inverted V-shape fins, powered by a TRDD-50 turbofan engine. It can reach speeds of Mach 0.6 and altitudes of up to 8,000 meters.

The S-71K deploys cluster munitions, while the S-71M features electro-optical sensors for day and night operations, with capabilities for target detection and engagement. The S-71M can be guided by an operator to validate targets or guide weapons. It offers multiple warhead options, including high-explosive and shaped charges. The S-71K is externally carried by launch aircraft, while the S-71M can also be housed in the weapons bay of an Su-57 or S-70 Okhotnik UAV.

 

[stealthflanker]

Tat thing is cruise missile alright, why calling it UAV tho ?

 

[Gwalker18]

So the S-71K is the one in the photo? How soon can it be deployed over Ukraine?

 

[Trident]

Tat thing is cruise missile alright, why calling it UAV tho ?

I suppose it is best categorized as what Western 6th generation concepts often call a "remote carrier".

 

[totoro]

Does it land on its own? If so, then calling it an uav might not be as much of a stretch.
But if it's essentially an one way ticket air craft, then it's really a missile or a powered recon/ multipurpose container.

 

[stealthflanker]

Kinda hard to imagine how that thing lands. Anyway i got myself some preliminary model.. i think. Based on patent and observed hardware. Some speculation tho on the inlet. As no internal layout or drawings available. At the moment, the inlet has no engine but instead the engine face is considered a flat plate.

No Radar absorbers assumed.

For comparison it will be JASSM, Storm Shadow and Kalibr.

Now the result :

Thise depict the interaction between the model and some frequencies. I modeled from VHF down to Ka-Band. However the other missiles used as comparison, didnt got that far. Thus the result will only be displayed in numerical form down to 12 GHz.

One can easily notice the apparent large "lobe" at the dorsal of the missile. That's from the inlet and the flat plate engine face.

As for the numerical result.


The S-71 form seems to be promising, mainly in high frequency regime, while in low VHF it has higher signatures compared to JASSM, Storm Shadow and Kalibr. The RCS however dropped sharply at L-band down to X, where it's lower than all the other missiles. Which about 0.01 sqm vs 0.05 and 0.04 for Storm shadow and JASSM respectively.

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

I haven't seen a link to the patent?

 

[Deino]

Looks IMO more like a munition dispenser or LRCM but not really an UAV/UCAv-carrier ... as such indeed like JASSM, Storm Shadow and the new Chinese KF-98A

 

[stealthflanker]

I haven't seen a link to the patent?

Ah, no one posted it yet.. here is the patent link

ПО №139478

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

Looks a pretty decent shape. Patent images attached.

 

[Acatomic]

@stealthflanker nice

One thing to note, the cross-section is slightly trapezoidal and not square:


There is no top or front view in the patent, intentionally I assume.

 

[TomcatViP]

It´s probably really light at the end of the mission. You can see how the engine nozzle and inlet are tiny. I would not be surprised if it just belly land in a grass field like many small UAS. At worst, a parachute should do the trick.

Aren´t the patent image confusing? My intuition would tell that this UAV rolls 180degree after launch with the wing shoulder mounted.

 

[paralay]

 

[Acatomic]

Just to add this patent, it was already posted on Su-57 topic:

Официальные публикации

new.fips.ru

1. An air-launched unmanned aerial vehicle designed to engage a wide range of operational intelligence data of stationary and moving objects in counteraction conditions with automatic recognition of the target type and decision-making on its engagement, comprising a fuselage containing a warhead, a middle section, a tail section, a power plant, a power plant nozzle, a power plant air intake, a swept wing, a twin-fin all-moving tail unit, a warhead located inside the fuselage, an optical system, navigation system sensors and an onboard intelligent search and guidance system based on trained neural networks.

2. An air-launched unmanned aerial vehicle according to paragraph 1, in which the fuselage in cross-section has a substantially trapezoidal shape with the sides “tilted” inward relative to the plane of symmetry of the unmanned aerial vehicle.

3. An air-launched unmanned aerial vehicle according to paragraph 1, in which the twin-fin all-moving tail is inclined at an angle relative to the plane of symmetry of the unmanned aerial vehicle.

4. An air-launched unmanned aerial vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the optical system comprises a camera operating in the visible wavelength range, or a camera operating in the infrared wavelength range, or a system of cameras operating in both the visible and infrared wavelength ranges.

5. An air-launched unmanned aerial vehicle according to paragraph 1, in which the warhead is a high-explosive charge, a high-explosive fragmentation charge, or a cumulative charge.

6. A method of using an air-launched unmanned aerial vehicle, including transporting the unmanned aerial vehicle on a sling point of a carrier aircraft, exchanging information between the unmanned aerial vehicle and an airborne command post or a mobile ground control post, launching the unmanned aerial vehicle to the line of combat contact, autonomous flight of the unmanned aerial vehicle along a route specified in the flight mission, entry of the unmanned aerial vehicle into a specified area, searching for targets during flight along a route specified in the flight mission or an independently constructed search route, transmitting information from the unmanned aerial vehicle's camera about detected and recognized targets in real time to the airborne command post or a mobile ground control post.

7. A method for using an air-launched unmanned aerial vehicle according to paragraph 6, during which, after detecting a target, the unmanned aerial vehicle independently makes a decision to hit the target in accordance with a target database and the corresponding target priority table.

8. A method of using an air-launched unmanned aerial vehicle according to paragraph 6, during which, after detecting a target, the operator makes a decision to hit the target.