Yastreb?

This is coolbert:

From the VoiceofRussia we have this surprising info.

The Yastreb pilotless reconnaissance cruise missile to be resurrected?

"Russia may resume Yastreb project"

"The Russian Air Force Command has asked Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to consider resuming work on the A-90 reconnaissance and electronic warfare aircraft. After it was suspended two years ago, designers have been working hard to improve it and eliminate the drawbacks."

Yastreb as described in the open source material as a cruise missile with formidable capability the mission of which was intelligence gathering, a photographic and radio/radar intercept "platform" recoverable and reusable. A UAV drone able to fly high, fast, and high!

Again, the open source material suggesting that Yastreb for some time having been consigned to the scrap heap AFTER MAKING ONLY TWO OPERATIONAL MISSIONS!

The Soviet era defector and GRU intelligence officer Suvorov suggesting otherwise!

Writing [from "Inside the Soviet Army", 1982] of the Reconnaissance Directorate of a Soviet Strategic Direction Suvorov writes:

"The Reconnaissance Directorate also has an entire range of reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering equipment, one of which deserves special mention:

"This is the Yastreb pilotless rocket aircraft, which is launched from a mobile rocket launcher and which carries out photo-and radio-reconnaissance at heights of more than 30 kilometers [100,000 feet], flying at speeds in excess of 3,500 kilometers [2,000 miles] per hour. From Byelorussia the Yastreb has successfully carried out photographic reconnaissance over Spain, Great Britain and the French Atlantic seaboard. Its appearance at the beginning of the 1970's caused alarm at NATO headquarters. it was mistakenly identified as a MiG-25R."

"After a MiG-25 had appeared in Japan and had been carefully examined the experts came to the conclusion that this aircraft had insufficient operational radius to fly over Western Europe. It was realised that there had been a false alarm and in order not to cause another one, the Soviet Union discontinued flights by the Yastreb in peacetime. However it is still being used over China, Asia, and African and over the ocean . . . Unlike a rocket it can be used again and again."

NOT a rocket plane. A cruise missile with an "air-breathing" engine. And probably NOT capable of flying to altitudes in excess of "30 kilometers" at speeds in EXCESS of "3,500 kilometers per hour"!

Mistook for the MiG-25R Soviet Air Force reconnaissance version? All sorts of fantastic and distorted capability attributed to the Foxbat that was not really the case. NATO having the "willies" scared out of it for no count, the Yastreb mission ready and accomplished much earlier [1970's] than had been ever thought. The existence of the Yastreb even a closely guarded secret the existence of the UAV not even known to NATO intelligence?

coolbert.