Checkmate and Okhotnik face trouble despite positive spin from Rostec
Checkmate was unveiled at the MAKS-2021 event in Moscow in July 2021. (Photo: Russian MoD)
Western sanctions, imposed on Russia amid its invasion of Ukraine, mean that Rostec will struggle to bring its much-vaunted Checkmate and Okhotnik programmes to fruition.
During the meeting last month with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Rostec CEO Sergey Chemezov discussed the S-70 Okhotnik UCAV and the Checkmate light fifth-generation fighter aircraft — two much-hyped programmes that may yet suffer from the broader repercussions of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Chemezov claimed that serial production of the Okhotnik heavy UCAV will begin in 2023.
‘The first flying prototype was rolled out in 2021 and we will begin serial-producing and delivering it to the [Russian] defence ministry in 2023,’ he said in an official statement after the meeting.
‘As its specific feature, the Okhotnik has a flat
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