Russia brought its new stealth weapons to a sand-coloured airfield on the Egyptian coast this week and, for the first time, let people photograph them.

At the El Alamein International Airshow, sitting on the apron in front of a Su-57 Felon, were three air-launched weapons that until now had only been seen in grainy test imagery or in Ukrainian intelligence photographs of recovered wreckage: the S-71K Kovyor, the S-71M Monokhrom, and the S8000 Banderol. A fourth munition sat with them that nobody has yet put a name to.

None of them is a super-weapon. That is the point. All three are attempts to solve the same problem the war in Ukraine has hammered into Russian planners: how to keep hitting defended targets when your good missiles cost too much to fire in the numbers you actually need.

Get the names the right way round

A warning before anything else, because a lot of published material has this backwards. Early reporting on the S-71 family transposed the two versions. The current authoritative reading is that the S-71K Kovyor — kovyor means carpet — is the more refined, more stealthy weapon, and the S-71M Monokhrom is the simpler one. If you read an older article that says the opposite, that is why.

A cruise missile that looks like a small drone

The S-71M is a compact, turbojet-powered weapon with a deliberately angular airframe: a faceted nose flowing into a broad central fuselage, sharply swept wings that fold flat against the belly for carriage, and an inverted-V tail. There is at least one optically flat transparency in the nose, the kind of window you fit for an infrared or television seeker.

Ukrainian intelligence, which obtained an example, reported something more interesting than the shape. The warhead is an OFAB-250-270 high-explosive fragmentation bomb — a standard piece of Russian ordnance, bolted into a new airframe. Guidance is primarily inertial rather than a sophisticated terminal seeker, which sits oddly with that seeker window and is one of the open questions about the weapon. Much of the outer structure is fibreglass composite, and no specialised radar-absorbing coatings were identified.

That is a description of a cheap weapon wearing an expensive weapon’s clothes, and it is entirely rational. Shaping alone buys you a smaller radar return. It does not buy you a B-2. Against a hard-pressed integrated air defence network trying to sort real threats from decoys at three in the morning, smaller may be enough.

The S-71K takes the same idea further: a body that is notably broad and compact for its length, thicker folding wings, a more refined inverted-V tail. Sat on its trolley it reads less like a missile than like a small uncrewed aircraft. Public information is thin, but it has been associated with electro-optical guidance and more onboard processing — which would let it deal with targets more flexibly than a largely pre-programmed S-71M. How autonomous it actually is, nobody outside the programme can say from photographs.

The four weapons on display, photographed at the show. Clockwise from top left: S-71K Kovyor, an unidentified smaller guided munition, S8000 Banderol, and S-71M Monokhrom.

The United Aircraft Corporation, which builds the Su-57, said in a press release that both S-71 versions on display “were designed for fifth-generation fighters”. That is a marketing line as much as an engineering one — there is no obvious reason these weapons could not be hung on a great many other aircraft — but it explains why they were parked in front of a Felon rather than anything else.

Banderol: the missile that fits on a helicopter

The Banderol — also referred to as Dan-T — comes at the same problem from the other direction. It is a small jet-powered cruise missile, conventionally shaped, with an ogival fuselage, a pointed nose and sharply swept folding wings. Ukraine’s intelligence service obtained and analysed one. Reported range is around 500 kilometres, roughly 311 miles, with a correspondingly modest warhead.

What makes it notable is what carries it. Banderol has been associated with launch from the Orion drone, and imagery has now appeared showing one mounted on an Mi-28NM Havoc attack helicopter — consistent with unconfirmed Ukrainian reports last month that Russia was firing them from Mi-28s over the Sea of Azov at targets around Odesa.

A Banderol mounted on a Russian Mi-28NM attack helicopter.

An attack helicopter firing a 500-kilometre cruise missile is not a category that existed in most people’s heads a few years ago. It is also a neat illustration of how the line between a cruise missile and a large one-way attack drone has stopped meaning very much. Banderol has a missile’s airframe and a jet engine, and it makes extensive use of commercially available and foreign-sourced components.

The Su-57 opened its bays

The aircraft itself did not stay shy either. At the show a Su-57 flew a display with both main internal weapons bays open, revealing what appear to be Kh-69 standoff missiles in the forward bay — the kind of look at a Felon’s internal load that is normally very hard to come by.

Who is actually going to buy any of this?

That is where the sales pitch runs into the war that produced the merchandise. Buying weapons from Moscow now means navigating sanctions, restricted access to foreign technology and financing, and the broader political cost of maintaining a Russian defence relationship. For most prospective customers those considerations weigh at least as heavily as whether the missile works.

Which leaves the display doing something other than selling. Seen together, the four weapons are the clearest single snapshot anyone has had of where Russian air-launched strike is heading: away from a small number of exquisite missiles, towards a spread of cheaper ones that are shaped to be awkward to see, built partly out of parts you can order, and produced in numbers that matter more than any one of them does.

Russia is not alone in reaching that conclusion. The same logic is driving low-cost cruise missile and loitering munition programmes in the United States and across Europe. El Alamein just happened to be where Russia put its version on a table and turned the lights on.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the S-71K Kovyor?

The S-71K Kovyor is a Russian air-launched, turbojet-powered standoff weapon with a faceted, low-observable airframe, publicly displayed for the first time at the El Alamein International Airshow in Egypt in September 2026. It is the more refined and more stealthy of the two S-71 versions, and has been associated with electro-optical guidance and greater onboard processing than the simpler S-71M Monokhrom. Kovyor is Russian for carpet.

What is the difference between the S-71K and the S-71M?

The S-71K Kovyor is the more capable weapon: a broader, more compact body, thicker folding wings, a more refined inverted-V tail, and electro-optical guidance with more onboard processing. The S-71M Monokhrom is simpler and, according to Ukrainian analysis, relies primarily on inertial guidance. Note that a good deal of earlier reporting transposed the two designations; the current authoritative reading is that K is the refined version.

What warhead does the S-71M use?

Ukrainian intelligence analysis of a recovered example found that the S-71M incorporates an OFAB-250-270 high-explosive fragmentation bomb as its warhead. The same analysis described the outer structure as largely fibreglass composite and identified no specialised radar-absorbing coatings.

How far can the S8000 Banderol fly?

The Banderol, also referred to as Dan-T, is a small turbojet-powered cruise missile with a reported range of around 500 kilometres, about 311 miles, and a relatively small warhead. Ukraine’s intelligence service obtained and analysed an example, finding extensive use of commercially available and foreign-sourced components.

Can a helicopter launch a cruise missile?

In this case, apparently yes. Imagery has emerged showing an S8000 Banderol mounted on a Russian Mi-28NM Havoc attack helicopter, consistent with unconfirmed Ukrainian reports that Russia has been firing the weapon from Mi-28s over the Sea of Azov against targets around Odesa. The Banderol has also been associated with launch from the Orion drone.

Why is Russia showing these weapons at an airshow in Egypt?

El Alamein is an arms fair as much as a flying display, and Russia is trying to convert its wartime weapons development into export sales. The complication is that buying from Moscow now means dealing with sanctions, restricted access to foreign technology and financing, and the political risk of a Russian defence relationship — factors that weigh on a prospective customer at least as heavily as the performance of the weapon.

Are these weapons stealthy?

Only in a limited sense. The S-71 family uses faceted, low-observable shaping to reduce its radar return, and the S-71K in particular has unusually pronounced stealth shaping. But Ukrainian analysis of an S-71M found no specialised radar-absorbing coatings and a largely fibreglass composite structure. These are cheap weapons shaped to be harder to see, not the equivalent of a full-size stealthy cruise missile.

Sources: TWZ; United Aircraft Corporation press material; Ukrainian defence intelligence analysis as reported by TWZ; Aviation Week; imagery posted by @krakek1, @GeorgeN28581 and @OSINTWarfare.