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When Russia Shot Down Its Own Loyal Wingman to Prevent It From Crossing the Ukrainian Border
Did Ukraine Reverse-Engineer It?
In 2024, one of Russia’s Loyal Wingman drones became disconnected from its main fighter jet, the Sukhoi Su-57. It was a prototype flight test, and the flight took place near the Ukrainian-Russian border. Soon, the Russian pilot realized that it was completely disconnected and that he could no longer regain control of it.
They fired a missile, which hit the prototype. It caught fire and crashed.
Why did they fire at their own prototype? Because once it was captured by the other side, its technology could soon be stolen. This is what we call reverse engineering, although it is not easy to understand everything. It requires an appropriate lab and still takes time. The things that could be recovered from it may later be used to improve drone technology.
On the other side, when it crashed, it was already on fire. In some videos claiming to show the Russian Loyal Wingman incident, possibly the exact video of that incident, we can see the crashed drone and its debris scattered around it.
A fighter-jet-sized massive drone in a broken condition. Some reports say that Ukraine collected some of its parts, but how much was recovered and what…
