Part 1
Part two. What kind of UAV does our army need?
When conducting hostilities (military operations against the regular army of a developed state, and not the Papuans or pygmies with Kalashnikov assault rifles), such as reconnaissance, bombing from low altitudes, launching air-to-ground missiles at hard-to-reach targets (like caves in the mountains), etc. etc., currently existing UAVs, both domestic and foreign, will use the GPS or GLONASS navigation system. To control the flight of the UAV, both in our country and abroad, a satellite navigation system GPS (GLONAS) is used in combination with a digital inertial guidance system. The accuracy of the digital inertial system alone is lacking. But it never occurs to anyone that it is in wartime that the use of these navigation systems for UAVs will be called into question.
When reconnaissance or target designation, for example, on a group of standing tanks, the UAV must perform "object binding" - send the operator their exact geographic coordinates, which can only be obtained using a satellite positioning system. At the time of data transmission, the UAV must know with maximum accuracy where it is, therefore, the appropriate equipment is installed on the device. The drone also needs to know its geographic coordinates in order to return to the base, where it must arrive with reconnaissance information or for refueling. For point bombing and for launching air-to-ground missiles, it is also necessary to determine with the highest possible accuracy the current coordinates of the UAV relative to the targets selected for destruction. Inertial navigation devices do not provide the required accuracy, so you have to resort to the help of satellites.
And now let's ask ourselves the question: what happens if an on-board GPS receiver or other similar systems is disabled by the impact of special electronic warfare units on it? The answer is unambiguous: the receiver will turn into a useless load. Together with it, the reconnaissance and strike UAVs themselves will become useless (and even dangerous), since they will no longer be correctly oriented in space.
Back at the end of the 20th century, at one of the international air shows, a Russian company demonstrated the first device to suppress satellite positioning systems. As a result, they lost the ability to measure the coordinates of the objects on which they were installed.
What does our military department tell us? “In the process of the transition of the Russian Air Force to a new look, a number of intensive measures are planned to create a qualitatively new unmanned aerial vehicle, which will begin to enter the troops in 2011, and will be able to solve not only reconnaissance functions, but also a number of other combat missions currently being performed. time piloted by army, frontline and long-range aviation. In the future, as the transition of the Air Force aviation to a new look is completed, the share of unmanned aerial systems may amount to up to 40% of the total number of all combat aviation. " Oh how! It turns out that domestic UAVs, practically "unparalleled", or rather completely unsuitable for warfare against a real enemy, and not the Papuans, will begin to enter the troops next year!
In particular, if we analyze the topics on which the Ministry of Defense allegedly wants to carry out various research projects, then, for example, on the website of the Russian Ministry of Defense there is a certain "List of areas of military-technical research" carried out under the grants of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. In this "list", for example, you can see the following directions in which (theoretically, for a long time) the development of a domestic UAV for the needs of the RF Armed Forces should have been carried out (for convenience, some points not related to the UAV have been omitted):
1. Ways of countering threats to the military security of the Russian Federation using asymmetric methods.
- methods and means of reducing the effectiveness and methods of overcoming modern and advanced air and aerospace defense systems;
- methods and means of conducting non-contact combat operations.
2. Directions for creating new types of military-technical systems based on advanced technologies.
- robotic weapon systems;
- structures and methods of high-speed movement in dense media, hypersonic technologies.
3. Prospects for the development of information management systems and information warfare means.
- methods and means of synthesis into a single system of heterogeneous objects of management and control;
- systems and means of military telecommunications;
- methods and tools for automated data analysis and decision support;
- methods and means of protecting military information resources.
I just want to add “and animal husbandry” (C) “A billion years before the end of the world”, Strugatsky brothers.
There are also opinions that "strike UAVs" are generally a stillborn idea. They say, for example, that they have existed for a long time, and are called "Winged Rocket". They also say that the idea of making cruise missiles reusable and comparable in combat capabilities to attack aircraft will result in a classic aircraft, only without a pilot inside. With the same weight, price and performance characteristics *, and the pilot's weight saving - a maximum of one hundred kilograms - can hardly be significant on vehicles carrying tons of weapons. Let's try to refute such pessimistic sentiments that take place both among the leadership of the Ministry of Defense and among those who are ardent "theoretical" opponents of large, heavy, smart, high-tech and, accordingly, expensive domestic UAVs.
Let's try to formulate the main technical requirements for modern UAVs, the initial data for their development, we will try to determine the purpose of UAVs of the XXI century, their scope, as well as special requirements due to the specifics of both the UAV itself and the conditions of its operation. As a rule, such requirements are determined on the basis of a careful analysis of the results of many years of preliminary research, calculations and modeling, but we, from our amateur point of view, will still try to solve such a difficult problem "in our minds."
One of the concepts of the combat use of a promising modern UAV is a "robotic" complex, which works in tandem with a manned combat aircraft. For example, the architecture of the onboard complex of an aircraft such as the PAK-FA makes it possible to control up to 4 UAVs, which perform the function of an "arms depot" (or a "long arm", or even an "assault group") with it.
Modern "transport" UAVs are extremely in demand in theaters of military operations with rugged terrain, an underdeveloped road or airfield network. Currently, you can trace the urgent need for an unmanned helicopter, which would carry out the rapid transfer of goods between units, both on the front line and in the rear. The list of performance characteristics of modern UAVs includes: very long flight duration; the presence on board of a significant number of both active and passive sensors (of course, integrated into a single complex); the ability to integrate UAVs into a single system of heterogeneous objects of command and control; building automated combat networks; the architecture of the onboard complex, which allows data transmission in real time, as well as the presence of small-sized and high-precision weapons on board. In modern warfare, the requirement for the fighting side (read - "we have") to have a UAV that does not depend on weather conditions for constant observation and reconnaissance is not just dominant, but mandatory.
Since we began the article by considering the needs of the RF Armed Forces for operational-tactical and strategic UAVs, we will formulate technical requirements based on these conditions. Therefore, as we have already stipulated above, the UAV data should:
- be able to independently conduct aerial reconnaissance to a depth of 1000 kilometers, from low and medium altitudes, in simple and, necessarily, difficult weather conditions, at any time of the day and time of the year;
- be able to perform combat missions in conditions of strong opposition from enemy air defense and in the event of a complex electronic situation;
- be able to transmit the received intelligence information over secure communication channels in real time with a flight range from 1800 to 2500 kilometers with a duration of up to 24 hours.
In addition, a promising UAV should be able to function both within the framework of man-machine interaction and within the framework of man-machine-machine.
Initially, we made a reservation that one of the concepts for the combat use of a promising domestic UAV is a "robotic" complex that works in tandem with a manned combat aircraft. Consequently (at least in terms of basic performance characteristics), a modern UAV should not be inferior to both modern and promising front-line aviation systems, namely:
- the design of the UAV airframe should be performed using stealth technologies;
- the UAV must have modern engines with a deflected thrust vector;
- the design of the UAV must ensure the conduct of a maneuverable battle, both at close and long distances, it must be able to fight, both with air and ground or sea targets;
- a modern UAV, of course, must be able to fly at cruising supersonic;
- the maximum speed of the UAV must be in the range of 2200-2600 km / h;
- the maximum flight range of a UAV must be at least 4000 km (without refueling) with a PTB;
- UAVs must be able to refuel in the air from air tankers;
- UAVs must have a practical flight ceiling of at least 21,000 meters and have a rate of climb of at least 330 - 350 meters per second;
- UAV should be able to use airfields with runways no longer than 500 meters;
- the maximum operational overload of the UAV should be at least 10-12 g (+/-).
During the flight, as a rule, UAV control should be carried out automatically by means of an onboard navigation and control complex, which should include:
- a satellite navigation receiver that receives navigation information from GLONASS systems;
- a system of sensors, providing the determination of coordinates, orientation in space and determination of the parameters of the UAV movement;
- an information system that measures altitude and speed, and controls the movement and maneuvering bodies of the UAV;
- various types of antennas and radars designed to perform communication tasks, transmit data, interface to combat information systems and networks, detect and track targets;
- the system of optical and inertial orientation in the space of the UAV, as a backup, the global positioning system;
- an intelligent control system for the UAV and all its systems using inference and decision-making procedures.
The on-board navigation and control system of the UAV should provide:
- flight along a given route;
- changing the route assignment or returning to the starting point on command from the ground control point;
- a change in the route assignment due to the changed conditions for the assignment;
- changing the route assignment at the command of the information complex connected to the combat network;
- flying around the specified point;
- selection, selection and recognition of targets, both at the command of the operator, and in automatic mode;
- auto tracking of the selected target;
- stabilization of UAV orientation;
- maintaining the specified altitudes and flight speed;
- collection and transmission of telemetric information about flight parameters and operation of target equipment;
- remote software control of target equipment devices;
- transmission of information to the nodes of the combat information network and to the operator via encrypted communication channels;
- collection, accumulation, interpretation of the received data, as well as their distribution within the combat information system;
- the UAV control system must ensure the takeoff and landing of the UAV both with the help of aerodrome equipment and on the basis of only optical information available to the UAV control system.
Onboard communication system:
- must operate through secure communication channels;
- must ensure the transfer of data from board to ground and from ground to board to the nodes of the combat information system and receive incoming data from them;
Data transmitted from the aircraft to the ground or to the nodes of the combat information system:
- telemetry parameters;
- streaming video of both target equipment and optical orientation organs of the UAV;
- intelligence data;
- data of intelligent SPR
- control teams within the combat information system.
The data transmitted on board contains:
- UAV control commands;
- commands to control the target equipment;
- management teams of the intelligent SMR.
During the implementation of this project, the following tasks should be solved:
- analysis of flight, kinematic and tactical properties;
- development and manufacture of a scale-dimensional model that meets the assigned tasks;
- development, manufacture and research of fundamentally new structural diagrams and control systems;
- experimental development of UAV control strategies by means of full-scale modeling of the behavior of closed systems in conditions
uncertainty and the presence of external disturbances;
- development of scientific and methodological foundations for the construction of three-dimensional planners of UAV motion based on neuroprocessor systems;
- design of sensor systems based on television cameras, thermal imagers and other sensors that provide collection, preliminary processing and transmission of information about the state of the external environment to the base computing complex of the UAV;
- other tasks related to the creation of a modern UAV, which will certainly arise in the process of project implementation.
The information received by the UAV should be classified by its information system depending on the degree of the threat presented. The classification should be carried out both at the command of the operator by the ground control station (NSC), and in automatic mode by the on-board information system of the UAV. In the second case, the software of the complex contains elements of artificial intelligence, and therefore it is required to develop expert criteria and gradations of threat levels when making decisions by the information system. Such criteria can be formulated through expert assessments and should be formalized in such a way as to minimize the likelihood of misinterpretation of data by the UAV information system.
What can be said in conclusion? The autonomy of modern military UAVs is still poor. However, the development of modern weapons systems stubbornly dictates to make the "leash" for the UAV longer and longer, since the "iron" soldier reacts to what is happening much faster than a living soldier, the "iron" soldier is not subject to emotions that are inherent in an ordinary soldier. If, for example, a squadron squadron came under fire from enemy air defense, then a UAV with an intelligent control system can instantly fix the point of fire, together with other UAVs united in a combat information network, plan an attack and return fire to destroy the enemy air defense even before it has time take cover, and maybe even before she has time to make an accurate shot.
