#soviet weapons

In the 1960s, the Soviet Union attempted to replicate the American U-2 spy plane using parts recovered from a downed aircraft. Despite efforts to reverse-engineer both the airframe and its engine, the S-13 project never took off—literally or figuratively.

Russia sells itself as a military superpower—one of the world’s top arms exporters, with a defense industry built on mass production and legacy firepower. But three years into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, that image is getting a lot harder to believe.