Results of the past year in the unmanned sphere
Everything related to unmanned aerial vehicles is a rather narrow and specific topic. Nevertheless, news, one way or another connected with it, in the past year often attracted the attention of the military-technical expert community. They mainly came from abroad, but something interesting (in some UAV classes) was happening in our country.
Most of the significant events in the drone world took place in well-known companies that have been working in this field for many years. But new firms also appeared - creators of unique projects.
Fighters
In the class of attack unmanned aerial vehicles, a kind of competition between two long-standing rivals - the Northrop Grumman corporation and the Boeing concern - continues. Boeing showed the new X-45 Phantom Ray UAV at the Farnborough Air Show last year. However, Northrop Grumman, which has previously demonstrated the X-47 Pegasus drone at various exhibitions, seems to have moved on. In early February, it was announced that this promising carrier-based drone made its first flight from Edwards Air Force Base in California, and in the fall it was reported that a second UAV was assembled, which is also supposed to be used in ongoing flight tests.
Unfortunately, the European consortium of companies implementing the project of an unmanned aerial vehicle of the same class - nEUROn - did not please. Apparently, due to lack of funding, it turned into a kind of long-term construction with an uncertain fate. A similar situation, apparently, and with the domestic attack UAV "Skat", the layout of which was presented several years ago by the Russian aircraft corporation "MiG".
Drones - "strategists"
In this class of aircraft with high altitude and flight duration, the American Global Hawk drone from Northrop Grumman Corporation remains a kind of "monopoly". The device, which in the future is supposed to replace the U2 reconnaissance aircraft in the US Air Force, worked quite actively in the past year. So, it is known about its use in the Libyan campaign, it was reported about the likely cases of the use of the "Global Hawk" over the territory of North Korea. In addition, last year, the drone participated in a kind of humanitarian mission in Japan - the UAV carried out aerial reconnaissance over the area of the emergency nuclear power plant "Fukushima-1".
Several countries have a desire to acquire this drone. Among the contenders, in particular, Japan and South Korea. However, so far only Germany has received this system - in July, Global Hawk made a transatlantic flight from Edwards airbase to an airfield in German Manching, where Cassidian will install reconnaissance equipment (including electronic) on it. According to the promulgated plans of the German Ministry of Defense, the Luftwaffe should receive four re-equipped drones.
For the sake of fairness, it should be mentioned that in the middle of summer there were practically spy shots of a Chinese device of a similar class. However, it is still difficult to say what exactly is behind these photos. Due to the rather closed information policy of Beijing, the available data from the Middle Kingdom are very limited. That is why there are some doubts about the reality of the presented object. Perhaps the "leak" did not occur without the knowledge of the PRC authorities and is intended to misinform China's geopolitical rivals.
Chief Newsmaker - Tehran
The Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance (MALE) class presented several surprises. Perhaps one of the brightest and most widely discussed was the news about the falling of the secret American UAV RQ-170 "Sentinel" into the hands of the Iranian military. This unmanned "stealth" reconnaissance aircraft, which is perhaps the most high-tech device in its class, was planted (according to other sources, fell or landed) in Iran in early December and thus turned out to be a kind of New Year's gift to the leadership of the Islamic Republic (see " MIC ", No. 50, 2011).
The main "workhorses" in this class of UAV systems in the past year were the General Atomics MQ-1 "Predator" and General Atomics MQ-9 "Reaper" (Reaper / Predator B) drones. With their help, reconnaissance was carried out and strikes were made against ground targets in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya. At the same time, the number of drones in the US Air Force was constantly increasing. In early 2011, the US Air Force ordered 24 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles, and in December - 40 more. In addition, at the end of the year, there were reports in the media that the Air Force was purchasing the Avenger / Predator C UAV, a further development of the Predators »Equipped with a turbofan engine and a PAR. Apparently, in the near future they will be tested in Afghanistan.
If in the New World there are no doubts about the ways of further development of this direction - General Atomics is actually a monopoly in this market segment in the United States, then in Europe everything is not so clear. A number of projects are being implemented in parallel here.
Several years ago, to close the niche of long-range medium-altitude drones, the French armed forces acquired a batch of UAVs in Israel. However, this was not just a purchase, but to some extent a joint project, in which, on the one hand, the Israeli company IAI participated with its Heron drone, and on the other, the European concern EADS. The device, which changed its name several times and is now known under the name Harfang, is used by the French military, in particular in Afghanistan. Despite the seemingly quite successful operation of the UAV data, the Ministry of Defense of the Fifth Republic last year decided to acquire American Reaper as well. According to some sources, this may be due to the better integration (interoperability) of overseas machines into NATO information systems.
At the same time, wanting to have their own systems, the French, albeit not quickly, are still developing the Talarion project. A full-size mock-up of the future UAV is shown in the static parking lot of the Cassidian company at last year's Le Bourget air show.
The competitor of this device is the British drone Mantis. BAE Systems, which had independently worked on the creation of this drone for several previous years, announced last year that it had joined the project, which changed its name to Telemos, of the French company Dassault Aviation. It is more advanced in terms of the implementation stage than Talarion - the device made its first flight two years ago. However, according to the available information, the parliament of the Fifth Republic did not approve the financing of the French participation in the project. So at the moment, the odds of the Talarion UAV still look preferable.
Some other states are also not averse to joining the club of MALE-class unmanned systems. Their intentions are stimulated by the desire to have drones of their own production and to be independent of the political environment, as well as, in some cases, by the inability to obtain such devices from the United States or Israel.
In early 2011, India demonstrated the Rustom UAV project at an exhibition in Bangalore. Around the same time, Anka made its first test flight in Turkey. In the fall, during the Dubai Air Show, the United Arab Emirates company Adcom Systems surprised the public with a new unusual United-40 project with an S-shaped fuselage and a large aspect ratio tandem wing.
It is quite obvious that China is also very eager to acquire the appropriate systems, which has repeatedly brought to air shows a model of the Pterodactyl UAV, which resembles a replica of the American Predator apparatus. The Chinese are famous copyists, but it is still difficult to say for sure whether this drone is a real project or from the Middle Kingdom they are delivering a "dummy" that is shown to distract attention.
Finally, the main event of the year in this class of vehicles for us is undoubtedly connected with the plans of the Russian Ministry of Defense. Domestic MALE should appear in two categories at once - 800 and 4500 kilograms, which conjures up an analogy with the American Predator and Reaper. The companies "Transas" (St. Petersburg) and "Sokol" (Kazan) will have to develop these devices for the military department of the Russian Federation. Both projects are expected to be led by a team led by one of our most famous experts in the field of unmanned vehicles, Nikolai Dolzhenkov.
It seems that, firstly, this means that the Ministry of Defense has lost confidence in OJSC Radio Engineering Concern Vega, which earlier, as the main developer of unmanned systems, was also the main recipient of state funds. And secondly, it most likely indicates that the Luch UAV project, created on the basis of the Sigma-5 piloted light aircraft of initial training by the eponymous design bureau from Rybinsk, which is part of the Vega concern, has been closed.
Contest with the "shadow"
In the class of tactical systems, the past year also brought several new products. So, it became known that the American company AAI has begun flight tests of an improved version of the RQ-7 Shadow ("Shadow") - the world's most famous tactical-class unmanned system. The new Shadow-M2 will reportedly differ from the base version with increased payload and improved avionics integration. In addition, this initially reconnaissance drone may soon be equipped with weapons - Raytheon has completed the first phase of testing a new 5, 5 kilogram small bomb, created under the STM (Small Tactical Munition) program specifically for the Shadow class vehicles.
The Russian company Aerokon (Kazan), in turn, has created the Rubezh-30 UAV. Despite the fact that this system was presented to the general public only at MAKS last summer, according to the developer's information, it has already been delivered to the first foreign customer in Venezuela.
Another interesting novelty could be observed at the end of May in the capital of Belarus at the MILEX exhibition of weapons and military equipment. This is the unmanned aerial vehicle "Grif-1", the work on which is quite successfully carried out by a group of enterprises headed by the 558th aircraft repair plant (Baranovichi) and the Minsk design bureau INDELA. A comprehensive state program for the development of unmanned aerial systems is being implemented in a country neighboring Russia. A reasonably well-thought-out UAV policy with clearly defined objectives, regular funding and monitoring of implementation seems to have begun to bear fruit.
Returning to domestic drones, it should be noted that over the past year, the Transas company has significantly improved the Dozor-100 UAV. In particular, the ADS-B equipment is now installed on it. The joint test flights of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles equipped with these automatic dependent surveillance transponders held in late spring near St. manned and unmanned aerial vehicles in the airspace. This is one of the options for solving a significant problem that prevents the massive proliferation of UAV systems.
Illustrative examples
In the mini-UAV class, one of the main events of 2011 was the appearance in our country of the first device with a hydrogen fuel cell. "Inspector 402" was shown at MAKS by "Aerocon" company from Zhukovsky near Moscow, one of the first to timely note the world trend for the use of hydrogen fuel cells in this segment to increase flight duration. Moreover, if the majority of foreign drones use Singapore products, the Inspector is equipped with their domestic counterpart developed by the Kurchatov Institute.
According to Eduard Baghdasaryan, Director of Aerocon, the project was implemented in a fairly short time frame with the active participation of Vladimir Kargopoltsev, Director of the UAC Engineering Center. Thus, Russia has demonstrated, on the one hand, adherence to global trends, and on the other hand, the ability not to purchase, but to create appropriate systems on its own.
Enix has also significantly modified its unmanned aerial vehicles. At the end of 2010, her Eleron, along with the devices of two other companies, was selected by a commission of the Russian Ground Forces based on the results of comparative tests. We can say that this is exactly the same example when domestic experts studied foreign experience, thoroughly familiarized themselves with the Israeli samples of mini-UAVs purchased by the Russian Ministry of Defense and, having creatively rethought it, used some rational approaches in their own developments. It is expected that several dozen "Elerons" will enter service after passing state tests. In the meantime, the complex is actively used by civil and paramilitary (paramilitary) customers, demonstrating high reliability in various operating conditions, including beyond the Arctic Circle.
At the end of the year, the Baltic Fleet acquired one more domestic unmanned complex "Grusha". According to a representative of this operational-strategic formation, the vehicles are primarily intended to equip the units of the Marine Corps and the motorized rifle formation of the coastal forces (79th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade).
Rotorcraft variety
There was also news in 2011 related to a helicopter-type UAV. So, in October, it became known that the US Navy and the US Marine Corps (ILC) chose the K-MAX unmanned rotorcraft, which is being worked on by Lockheed Martin and Kaman, for deployment in Afghanistan. Successfully completed tests preceded this decision. Based on their results, it was confirmed that the K-MAX unmanned helicopter meets the requirements of the Navy and the ILC, namely, it is capable of delivering cargo with a total weight of 2,700 kilograms daily and can be used to provide logistical support for military units of marines fighting in Afghanistan.
Boeing continues to work on another, also quite large, helicopter-type UAV - Little Bird. According to available information, in June and July 2011 in the United States, tests were successfully carried out to automatically land a drone, including on a mobile platform that simulates the deck of a ship.
At the same time, despite the efforts of competing companies, the most famous project in the field of fairly large vehicles remains the Northrop Grumman MQ-8 Fire Scout UAV. During the year they were used during military operations in Afghanistan, and later in Libya. Now the issues of placing weapons on board these drones are being seriously considered. At the end of 2011, it became known that the US Navy would form a squadron fully equipped with drone helicopters. The main contender is Fire Scout.
A very interesting project at the Dubai Air Show was presented by the Swiss company Unmanned Systems AG. The idea of its designers is to move the engine out of the fuselage, placing it above the main rotor, and as a result make room for additional fuel tanks and equipment, eliminate the tail rotor, and also solve the problem of icing of the main rotor.
However, if this Swiss project is still underway - its readiness is expected next year, then the unmanned system Camcopter S-100 of the Austrian company Schiebel is already actively used in various countries of the world. In 2011, this one of the most commercially successful projects in the field of helicopter UAV systems received a Russian "registration".
The domestic company "Gorizont", one of the main suppliers of technical systems of the Border Guard Service of the FSB of Russia, has entered into an agreement on the creation of a licensed assembly plant for Camcopter systems in Rostov-on-Don. According to experts, in the fall of 2011 on the border patrol ship of project 22460 "Rubin" in the Novorossiysk region, successful tests were carried out, including takeoff, landing, detection, tracking and recognition of a high-speed, inconspicuous surface target of the "whaleboat" type, maneuvering at a speed of 24 knots …
A whole family of unmanned helicopters was presented to the public by INDELA KB - perhaps the most famous Belarusian company working in the field of drone development. Last fall, it became known about the experience of using one of them. The Sky Hunter helicopter, equipped with 12-gauge small arms mounted on a gyro-stabilized turret, successfully flew off at the autumn exercises in Belarus. The successes of KB INDELA did not go unnoticed in our country - according to available information, Russian Helicopters are closely cooperating with the company in the framework of the creation of light UAVs.
In general, the specialists of Russian Helicopters, as follows from the report of the head of the unmanned direction of the holding, Gennady Bebeshko, are working on projects to create several unmanned helicopters of various classes. The only Russian company that can compete with them is, perhaps, the St. Petersburg Scientific and Production Enterprise Radar Mms. However, it is obvious that until the customer, represented by the Russian Ministry of Defense, decides on the requirements for the relevant systems and allocates the necessary funding for work on them, they will be carried out in a sluggish mode.
Two interesting systems were shown to the public last year by the Israeli company IAI, better known as the creator of unmanned aircraft. The first of these is the Panther UAV, demonstrated at the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget. It is a tiltrotor with three rotatable propellers, which makes vertical take-off and landing in helicopter mode and horizontal flight in airplane mode possible. According to representatives of the company, on the basis of this device, it is planned to create a whole family of drones of different classes, which, apparently, will close the niche of tactical UAVs previously occupied by I-View systems. The second device is a quadrocopter. Unlike most similar devices existing in the world, it is tethered, which makes it similar to balloon systems - the duration of the drone's flight is practically unlimited, since electricity is transmitted through a cable from a ground station. At the same time, the system is much more compact and faster to deploy.
