It might still be a developmental aircraft. While it’s not uncommon for the Russian air force to deploy test planes to combat zones in order to collect data in a real-world context, it’s a huge setback to a development effort to lose a rare and expensive test plane during combat trials.
Lately, nearly a third of those sorties have ended with the drone getting shot down by Ukrainian forces. “In the past, Russia was net gaining drones per month and now I think they are net losing,” Perpetua noted last month.
Slowly whittling away at Russia’s capabilities
This is actually massive. I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one general, or multiple colonels and majors, come down with the case of “falling from window”.
Stealth isn’t magic, it’s the science of evading enemy sensors. Stealth programs are very expensive and all their products are all incredibly sensitive state secrets. If opposing forces get a hold of your latest gen stealth airframe, its stealth composite materials, and EW systems, it’s only a matter of time until whatever advantage it had, is exponentially reduced, or even eliminated.
I guarantee this was immediately on a truck or train transport straight into Poland, and from there to some DoD facility for reverse engineering and countermeasure development.
