In one of the recent articles, airships and balloons were considered as a means of providing anti-aircraft missile systems (SAM) with the possibility of hitting low-flying targets at a great distance, without involving the aircraft of the Air Force (Air Force). However, the capabilities of airships are not limited to radar reconnaissance alone, in connection with which there was a desire to consider this direction in more detail.
History of the issue
It is believed that the airship controlled by muscular power was invented in the 18th century by the French mathematician and divisional general Jean Baptiste Marie Charles Meunier. Airships received their development half a century later, when steam, and then electric engines, internal combustion engines appeared. The development of airships reached their peak in the period between the two World Wars, when giant airships appeared, such as the Graf Zeppelin model, capable of carrying up to 25 tons of cargo over a distance of more than 10,000 km.
The Hindenburg airship possessed even greater capabilities, capable of carrying a cargo weighing 100 tons. Unfortunately, it was the disaster that occurred on May 6, 1937 with the "Hindenburg" that marked the end of the era of airships.
The main problem with airships of that time was that their tanks were filled with explosive hydrogen. Taking into account the fact that it is not possible to guarantee the absence of leakage of such a volatile and flammable substance throughout its entire service life, the catastrophe was predetermined.
Technically, in 1937, non-combustible helium was already obtained, but only the United States could master its production on an industrial scale, which refused to supply it to Germany, which produced the largest airships. There are also conspiracy theories that airship crashes were the result of competition with aircraft manufacturers. However, the most probable thing is that a big war loomed on the horizon, with all the advantages of airships, their "combat" capabilities were significantly inferior to the capabilities of aircraft, which predetermined the predominant development of the latter. It was hardly justified to invest significant funds in obtaining expensive (even now) helium in the pre-war period.
Return to airships. Western projects
Nevertheless, history moves in a spiral, and in the 21st century there is a certain interest in reviving the construction of airships at a new technological level. Development companies and the Air Force are considering several directions for the construction of promising airships. Firstly, these are airships designed to accommodate reconnaissance and communications equipment, and secondly, these are gigantic transport airships capable of transporting hundreds of tons of cargo over great distances.
In 2005, the notorious agency for advanced defense research projects DARPA announced the opening of a program for the construction of a super-heavy transport airship "Walrus" with a carrying capacity of 500 to 1000 tons and a range of up to 22 thousand kilometers.
As part of the program for the creation of a super-heavy airship, the said agency DARPA issued a grant of US $ 3 million to Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin's subcontractor Worldwide Eros Corp proposed the Aeroscraft airship project. Worldwide Eros Corp planned to build the Aeroscraft airship in three versions, the ML866 66 tonne model, the ML868 250 tonne model and the 500 tonne ML86X model.
Unfortunately, they managed to create only the prototype Dragon Dream airship with a length of 81 meters and a volume of 17 thousand cubic meters. In 2015, part of the roof of the hangar in which the Dragon Dream prototype was based collapsed, leading to its destruction and curtailment of work. By the way, Worldwide Eros Corp was founded in 1992 by the current CEO and Chief Engineer Igor Pasternak, who came to America from Ukraine after the collapse of the USSR.
It is obvious that the creation of airships with a carrying capacity of 500-1000 tons will require solving a huge number of complex technical problems. Taking into account the fact that the airship building industry has been in oblivion for quite a long time, on the way to creating super-large airships, samples of lower carrying capacity should be built in stages.
One of the implemented projects is the Airlander 10 airship designed and manufactured by the British company Hybrid Air Vehicles. The airship "Airlander 10" is a hybrid airship - it uses aerodynamic lift during ascent and then is in the air due to the volume filled with helium. Its length is 92 meters, its carrying capacity is ten tons. The cruising altitude of the airship is 6,100 m, the cruising speed is 148 km / h. It can be in flight for up to two weeks in unmanned mode and about five days with a crew.
Initially, the airship was developed for the US Army under the LEMV program for reconnaissance and surveillance in the interests of ground forces. However, in 2013, the US Army abandoned this airship, presumably due to its high cost. In the future, the project developed as a commercial, an updated version of the airship made several flights, but in 2017 the Airlander 10 airship broke away from the mooring mast and was completely destroyed as a result of an impact on the takeoff field.
The American company JP Aerosapce is developing the Ascender stratospheric airship, designed to launch space launch vehicles from an altitude of about 50-60 kilometers. Despite the fact that the concept itself raises many questions, the developments obtained can be used to create airships with more realistic scenarios of use, for example, used as communication repeaters or carriers of high-altitude reconnaissance means.
From a height of 50-60 kilometers, the visibility range will be almost 1000 km, which will allow reconnaissance in the depths of the enemy's territory without violating its borders. The indicated heights are quite attainable for vehicles lighter than air - in 2009, the research unmanned balloon BU60-1, developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, rose to a height of 53 kilometers.
Airship building in Russia
In Russia, the main creator of airships is the Augur-RosAeroSystems holding. In June 2015, the president of the holding, Gennady Verba, announced that the company plans to build the Atlant combat airship by the end of 2018. The estimated cost of the project was several billion rubles. The Atlant family of airships should include three modifications with a carrying capacity of 16, 60 and 170 tons, capable of operating at altitudes up to 10 thousand meters. The military use of Atlant airships involved their use as elements of a missile attack warning system. Information on the creation of an airship in the interests of anti-missile defense was confirmed by Vladimir Mikheev, advisor to the first deputy general director of the concern "Radioelectronic Technologies" (KRET), in July 2015.
Another promising unmanned airship, "Berkut", should be able to rise to a height of 20-23 kilometers and stay aloft for up to six months. The long duration of the flight should be ensured due to the absence of the crew (unmanned airship) and the power supply system from solar panels. The main supposed tasks of the Berkut airship are to provide communication relaying and high-altitude reconnaissance.
Airships are a rather vulnerable platform in the event of a conflict with a high-tech enemy due to their enormous size and low flight speed, which, however, does not diminish their role as a means of warning of an attack by low-flying air attack weapons. Any large stationary objects, for example, such as radars of missile attack warning stations, can be considered as easily vulnerable targets, which is not at all a reason to abandon them.
If the development of airships with a carrying capacity of 500-1000 tons is successfully implemented, they can also become an essential element of the logistics system of modern armed forces, combining the advantages of transport aircraft, helicopters and ships. In this case, the platform's vulnerability can be compensated for by choosing the optimal flight routes to avoid collision with enemy forces.
Airships in local conflicts
It can be assumed that airships can play an extremely important role in local conflicts against an enemy that does not possess modern air defense (air defense) means.
One of the global problems of the modern Air Force is the high cost of not only airplanes and helicopters, but also the high cost of their operation.
As a result, local wars against militants, the most modern weapons of which can be anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs) and portable anti-aircraft missile systems (MANPADS), become financially unaffordable even for superpowers, which is confirmed by the experience of the USSR and the United States in Afghanistan. There is no doubt that the cost of air support for the Syrian government forces is also costing Russia a pretty penny.
How can the use of airships affect the situation? In the material Combat Gremlins of the US Air Force: Reviving the Concept of Aircraft Carriers, the US Air Force's concepts for the construction of promising aircraft carriers - carriers of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were considered. According to the projects of the DARPA agency, the deployment of inexpensive reusable UAVs on board transport aircraft, bombers and tactical aircraft will reduce the likelihood of losses and simplify the breakthrough of enemy air defenses. It can be assumed that such a concept is also justified from the point of view of reducing the cost of conducting combat operations in the air / from the air.
Nevertheless, in the fight against irregular formations, even the use of aircraft carriers based on transport aircraft and bombers will be very costly. As discussed in the same material, airships were the first aircraft carriers.
The concept of an airship-aircraft carrier may well be recreated at the modern technological level for solving problems in local conflicts.
Presumably, the creation of an Atlant-type airship with a carrying capacity of 60 tons and a flight height of over 5000 meters will make it possible to develop on its basis a carrier airship with the placement of several types of UAVs of small and medium dimensions, as well as fuel and weapons for them based on autonomous use for 2-4 weeks. The design of the UAVs themselves should be simplified as much as possible to reduce their cost.
The number of UAVs on board may vary depending on their weight and size characteristics. For UAVs of the "Forpost-M" type, the optimal number can be considered as about 12-16 UAVs, to ensure the possibility of 24-hour stay in the air of 3-4 UAVs in a three-shift version or 6-8 in a two-shift version. UAV control operators, the number of which is determined in accordance with the number of UAVs and work shifts, must also be located on board the carrier airship.
UAV carrier airship application scenario
For example, in the course of a local conflict, it is necessary to seize control of the city, which has become a stronghold of militants and requires significant forces to seize it by government troops. A direct assault can lead to large losses among personnel, the use of combat aircraft and helicopters requires significant financial resources. In addition, modern fighters are poorly suited to defeat scattered groups of militants, and Su-25 attack aircraft and combat helicopters are vulnerable to enemy fire.
The carrier airship occupies a predetermined position above the city (or to the side, at a short distance). The flight altitude of over five kilometers makes it invulnerable to the air defense systems of the militants. In addition, it can be equipped with a means of countering MANPADS attacks, such as "President-S".
After reaching the position, the carrier airship launches the UAV on patrol. Patrol UAVs should be equipped with weapons with a minimum cost - guided and unguided small-diameter bombs, unguided aircraft missiles, small arms and grenade launchers, etc. Detection of the enemy is carried out both by means of UAV reconnaissance and by means of reconnaissance of the carrier airship, which, after detecting a target, directs the nearest UAV to it. The carrier airship is on duty for two weeks, after which it is replaced by another carrier airship.
The main task of the carrier airship and its wing is to carry out a constant, round-the-clock, exhausting effect on the enemy. Any target found must be destroyed as soon as possible. The means of radar and thermal imaging reconnaissance must ensure round-the-clock detection of the enemy, and the presence of the carrier airship near the zone of responsibility will ensure the minimum reaction time.
After several weeks of continuous impact, the enemy can be expected to be significantly demoralized and suffer heavy losses in manpower and weapons. In the event that a decision is made on a ground assault, UAVs from a carrier airship must provide direct air support to ground forces. Taking into account the specifics of the tasks performed, the UAV carrier airship should not be part of the Air Force, but part of the ground forces, acting directly in their interests, which will allow achieving the maximum level of interaction between UAV operators and ground soldiers.
Alternative placement of UAVs on a ground base will require either the involvement of models with a longer flight range, and, consequently, with a higher cost of the flight, or equipment of the base near the zone of responsibility, and its defense. In any case, the reaction time will be increased and the ability to detect the enemy will be reduced.
As we saw in the above table, the cost of a mid-sized Predator-type UAV flight is about $ 4,000, the cost of a small-sized UAV flight should be comparable to or lower than the cost of an OV-10 Bronco light attack aircraft ($ 1,000) from the same table. The combination of the low cost of the UAV flight and the low cost of operating the airship, which is usually presented by their creators as an advantage of this type of aircraft, will significantly reduce the total cost of air support in local conflicts. The loss of a small-sized UAV is also much less sensitive than the loss of a medium-sized UAV, not to mention the loss of manned aircraft and helicopters.
In peacetime, carrier airships can be used to control extended sections of the Russian state border, ensuring the detection and, if necessary, the destruction of smugglers, militants or terrorist groups. For example, the control zone of a carrier airship with an Forpost-M type UAV can make a circle with a diameter of 300-400 km.
Output
The history of airships did not end with the tragedy of the Hindenburg. New technical solutions, new tasks and challenges can help celestial giants to occupy their niche in the sky. The most promising directions for the development of airships can be considered the provision of reconnaissance and relaying communications, as well as the delivery of massive bulky cargo over long distances with the ability to work on unequipped sites. A separate direction in the development of airships can be the creation of UAV carrier airships for use in local conflicts against an enemy not equipped with modern air defense systems.
