The advent of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has greatly expanded the capabilities of the armed forces and reduced human losses. Their use made it possible to perform dangerous tasks without risking the lives of pilots.

For a long time, drones were assigned the role of targets for military pilots and anti-aircraft installation operators. However, the scientific and technological revolution in the field of radio engineering, optics and electronics has become the foundation for the creation of heavy multi-purpose vehicles capable of reconnaissance and strikes for several days.

The United States and Israel have achieved the greatest success in this field. The US Army has about 500 attack drones. The experience of their use, according to experts, will be taken into account by Russia in the fight against illegal armed groups in Syria.

Scope of application

At the moment, the Russian army does not have attack drones. About 70 UAVs are involved in the Syrian operation - light tactical vehicles Orlan-10 and Eleron-3 and heavy Outposts.

The devices perform the tasks of patrolling the territory around the Khmeimim airbase and the port of Tartus, searching for and reconnaissance of targets, and monitoring the area after the missile and bomb strikes of the Aerospace Forces. In particular, the use of "Outposts" allows you to keep track of hit targets and demonstrate to the whole world the work of the Aerospace Forces.

Director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST) Ruslan Pukhov told RT that the Syrian campaign made it possible to realize the need for several new types of weapons, including attack drones, to appear in the Russian Armed Forces.

• Unmanned aerial vehicles "Zastava", "Orlan"
• Press Service of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

Anton Mardasov, Head of the Department for Research on Middle East Conflicts and the Armed Forces of the Region at the Institute for Innovative Development, is sure that the use of strike drones is in demand in Syria both today and in the future.

The expert explained that after the end of the main phase of the operation, the scope of the UAV may expand. According to him, the disappearance of the military structure of IS * and the withdrawal of gangs into the underground "will require the Russian group to do more jewelry work to destroy ground targets."

Mardasov believes that the lion's share of tasks in the SAR will be able to perform domestic strike drones, which should soon enter service. Heavy UAVs are best suited for limited missions, for example, to destroy a command post, individual moving targets, a congestion of manpower in an urban area, or a militant warehouse.

Application perspective

The American experience in Afghanistan shows that strike UAVs can minimize the risk to the lives of personnel and civilians. However, the key to the combat effectiveness of drones is well-conducted reconnaissance.

In Afghanistan, due to a lack of intelligence from January 2012 to February 2013, out of 200 "militants" eliminated by drones, 35 turned out to be civilians. The reason for the errors was not malicious intent, but the lack of complete information about the targets being hit.

It is assumed that attack UAVs will be able to stay in the air for several days, monitoring the area, and hit unexpectedly appearing mobile groups of terrorists before the aircraft arrives. Such tactics can increase the level of responsiveness of the Russian Aerospace Forces and reduce the likelihood of unexpected counterattacks by militants, from which the Syrian army constantly suffers.

Mardasov believes that the prospect of using UAVs in modern warfare was realized by the Russian command during the South Ossetian conflict in 2008, during which Georgian troops used UAVs of American and Israeli production. Now, according to him, in Russia there is a reassessment of the attitude towards percussion devices.

“In order to close the gap in the range of weapons as quickly as possible, Israeli light drones Bird Eye 400 and heavy IAI Searcher 2 were purchased. ", - said Mardasov.

The expert noted that Israel sold a UAV with limited functionality to Moscow. This stimulated Russia to make active efforts to create its own heavy vehicles, corresponding to foreign counterparts.

“The Syrian campaign confirmed the need for the appearance in the Russian army of not only light, but also heavy UAVs. The larger the device, the more equipment of the best quality it can carry and, accordingly, the wider the range of tasks performed by the drone and the higher the efficiency of its use,” said Mardasov.

"Orion", "Altair", "Hunter"

The editor-in-chief of UAV.ru, aviation expert Denis Fedutinov, explained to RT that heavy UAVs, as a rule, combine reconnaissance and strike functions. In the United States, the first mass-produced drone of this type was the MQ-1 Reaper ("Reaper"). In 2007, at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, the first strike squadron in the United States was formed from these devices.

The expert said that several complexes of heavy UAVs are currently being developed in Russia. We are talking about the devices "Orion" of the company "Kronstadt", "Altair" OKB im. Simonov and "Hunter" of the Sukhoi Design Bureau.

• A prototype demonstrator of the Altair heavy class unmanned aerial vehicle developed by JSC NPO OKB named after M.P. Simonov.
• americanmilitaryforum.com

“Drawing certain parallels with foreign UAV systems close in their class, it can be assumed that, due to their size and related capabilities, they can potentially carry not only reconnaissance equipment, but also weapons,” Fedutinov said.

According to him, the Russian army has gained some experience in using light vehicles, which will come in handy when heavy reconnaissance and strike UAVs enter the troops. In particular, the practical skills of technical operation of Eleron-3, Orlan-10, Zastava and Outpost can be transferred to new drones.

“I believe that for the operation of reconnaissance and strike UAVs of a sufficiently heavy class, separate units will be created in the structure of the Air Force, in which military personnel will specialize exclusively in the use of drones and their maintenance,” Fedutinov said.

UAVs not only expand the capabilities of existing types of weapons through interaction in a single reconnaissance and information field, but are also gradually becoming independent combat units. Drones are one of the key elements of the coming replacement of people with machines on the battlefield, Fedutinov said.

“Due to a number of objective circumstances, Russia lagged behind in the development of UAVs. Now the situation is changing for the better, since there are opportunities not only to apply the best of the developments of the past, but also to work them out in practice, that is, in combat conditions, ”concluded the interlocutor of RT.

Russia is developing long-range supersonic drones to destroy enemy air defenses. According to The National Interest, citing leading American military experts, the UAV will be able to fly at different speeds and maneuver, and this will make it a difficult target for NATO anti-aircraft guns.

Earlier, Deputy Research Department of the Central Research Institute of the Air Force of the Ministry of Defense Alexander Nemov told the Zvezda TV channel that the promising drone would be able to hit both stationary and moving targets in operational strategic depth.

The United States took this Russian development very seriously. Center for Naval Analysis specialist Sam Bendett says that a projectile flying low and at high speed is extremely difficult to shoot down. And if he succeeds in destroying the radars and the missile defense system, the effectiveness of such a sortie will be simply prohibitive.

Another plus is that there is no need to fear for the life of the pilot, who simply does not exist. During the Second World War, the most experienced pilots were sent to perform similar dangerous tasks. Even if they did not manage to destroy the enemy's anti-aircraft guns, they revealed their coordinates - such is reconnaissance in force.

According to Bendett, Russian designers will definitely pay great attention to protection against electronic warfare and "stuff" UAVs with stealth technologies. Otherwise, the device will quickly be disabled. The same United States has the most modern complexes that allow you to take control of a drone or knock it off course.

By developing such a UAV, Russia demonstrates that it adheres to the tactics of destroying strategic enemy targets on its territory before the main attack.

The United States has a similar plan, which already produces similar drones. So, last summer, the American company Kratos Defense & Security Solutions presented at the Le Bourget air show a supersonic XQ-222 drone, named "Valkyrie" in honor of the legendary bomber. The range of the drone is 5,500 km, the first flight is expected this year. The apparatus has the same task - to break through the defense of the missile defense system in the European part of Russia. Like the UTAP-22 Mako, which is already being tested in the US. The Americans are in full swing simulating the destruction of Russian S-400 drones.

But when the Russian supersonic UAV will take off is still unknown. But definitely not before 2020.

So far, the Ministry of Defense is preparing to adopt the Zenitsa medium-range attack jet drone, made on the basis of the Soviet Tu-143 Reis. But this drone only accelerates to 820 km / h, and its flight range is only 750 kilometers. Such a UAV will perform completely different tasks. Supersonic is only planned to be released.

UAV Tu-123. Photo: wikipedia.org

But the most interesting thing is that the USSR had such a Tu-123, developed back in the 60s. last century. Initially, the projectile was supposed to carry a thermonuclear charge. But when the Cold War calmed down a bit, the Soviet UAV was converted into a reconnaissance aircraft. For quite a long time, drones flew near European borders until they were replaced by the MiG-25R.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, work on the UAV, as well as on new aircraft, was abandoned. And now it is difficult to catch up with the United States, and along with China.

Conducting work on the development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is considered one of the most promising courses in the development of current combat aviation. The use of drones or drones has already led to important changes in the tactics and strategy of military conflicts. Moreover, it is believed that in the very near future their significance will increase significantly. Some military experts believe that the positive shift in the development of drones is the most important achievement in the aviation industry of the last decade.

However, drones are used not only for military purposes. Today they are actively involved in the "national economy". With their help, aerial photography, patrols, geodetic surveys, monitoring of a wide variety of objects are carried out, and some even deliver purchases home. However, the most promising developments of new drones today are carried out for military purposes.

With the help of UAVs, many tasks are solved. Mainly, it is reconnaissance. Most of the modern drones were created for this purpose. In recent years, more and more strike unmanned vehicles have appeared. Drones-kamikaze can be distinguished as a separate category. Drones can conduct electronic warfare, they can be radio repeaters, spotters for artillery, air targets.

For the first time, attempts to create aircraft that were not controlled by man were made immediately with the advent of the first airplanes. However, their practical implementation took place only in the 70s of the last century. After that, a genuine “drone boom” began. Remotely controlled aircraft technology has not been realized for quite a long time, but today it is produced in abundance.

As often happens, American companies are in the lead in the creation of drones. And this is not surprising, because the funding from the American budget for the creation of drones was simply astronomical by our standards. So during the 90s, three billion dollars were spent on similar projects, while in 2003 alone, more than one billion was spent on them.

Nowadays, work is underway to create the latest drones with a longer flight duration. The devices themselves should be heavier and solve problems in a difficult environment. Drones are being developed designed to combat ballistic missiles, unmanned fighters, microdrones capable of operating in large groups (swarms).

Work on the development of drones is underway in many countries around the world. More than one thousand companies are involved in this industry, but the most promising developments go straight to the military.

Drones: advantages and disadvantages

The advantages of unmanned aerial vehicles are:

• A significant reduction in size in comparison with conventional aircraft (LA), leading to a reduction in cost, increasing their survivability;
• The potential to create small UAVs that could perform a wide variety of tasks in combat areas;
• Ability to conduct reconnaissance and transmit information in real time;
• The absence of restrictions on use in an extremely difficult combat situation associated with the risk of their loss. When conducting critical operations, it is easy to sacrifice several drones;
• Reduction (by more than one order of magnitude) of peacetime flight operations that would be required by traditional aircraft, preparing flight crews;
• The presence of high combat readiness and mobility;
• The potential to create small, uncomplicated mobile drone systems for non-aviation formations.

The disadvantages of UAVs include:

• Insufficient flexibility of use in comparison with traditional aircraft;
• Difficulties in resolving issues with communications, landing, rescue vehicles;
• In terms of reliability, drones are still inferior to conventional aircraft;
• Restriction of drone flights during peacetime.

A bit from the history of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)

The first remote-controlled aircraft was the Fairy Queen, built in 1933 in the UK. He was a target aircraft for fighter aircraft and anti-aircraft guns.

And the first serial drone that participated in a real war was the V-1 rocket. This German "wonder weapon" bombarded Great Britain. In total, up to 25,000 units of such equipment were manufactured. The V-1 had a pulse jet engine and an autopilot with route data.

After the war, unmanned intelligence systems were developed in the USSR and the USA. Soviet drones were reconnaissance aircraft. With their help, aerial photography, electronic intelligence, as well as relaying were carried out.

Israel has done a lot for the development of drones. Since 1978, they have had the first IAI Scout drone. In the 1982 Lebanese war, the Israeli army completely defeated the Syrian air defense system with the help of drones. As a result, Syria lost almost 20 air defense batteries and almost 90 aircraft. This was reflected in the attitude of military science to UAVs.

The Americans used UAVs in Desert Storm and in the Yugoslav campaign. In the 90s, they also became leaders in the development of drones. So since 2012, they have had almost 8 thousand UAVs of various modifications. Basically, these were small army reconnaissance drones, but there were also strike UAVs.

The first of them, in 2002, with a rocket attack on a car, eliminated one of the heads of Al-Qaeda. Since then, the use of UAVs to eliminate the enemy's PMD or its units has become commonplace.

Varieties of drones

Currently, there are a lot of drones that differ in their size, appearance, flight range, as well as functionality. UAVs differ in their control methods and their autonomy.

They may be:

• Unmanaged;
• remote controlled;
• Automatic.

According to their size, drones are:

• Microdrones (up to 10 kg);
• Minidrones (up to 50 kg);
• Mididrons (up to 1 ton);
• Heavy drones (weighing more than a ton).

Microdrones can stay in the airspace for up to one hour, minidrones for three to five hours, and mididrons for up to fifteen hours. Heavy drones can stay in the air for more than twenty-four hours with intercontinental flights.

Overview of foreign unmanned aerial vehicles

The main trend in the development of modern drones is to reduce their size. One of the Norwegian drones from Prox Dynamics can be such an example. The helicopter drone has a length of 100 mm and a weight of 120 grams, a range of up to one km, and a flight duration of up to 25 minutes. It has three video cameras.

These drones have been mass-produced since 2012. Thus, the British military purchased 160 sets of PD-100 Black Hornet in the amount of 31 million dollars for special operations in Afghanistan.

Microdrones are also being developed in the United States. They are working on a special Soldier Borne Sensors program aimed at developing and implementing reconnaissance drones with the potential to extract information for platoons or companies. There is information about the planning by the American army leadership to provide all fighters with individual drones.

To date, the RQ-11 Raven is considered the heaviest drone in the US Army. It has a mass of 1.7 kg, a wingspan of 1.5 m and a flight of up to 5 km. With an electric motor, the drone can reach speeds of up to 95 km/h and stay in flight for up to one hour.

He has a digital video camera with night vision. The launch is made from the hands, and a special platform is not needed for landing. The devices can fly along predetermined routes in automatic mode, GPS signals can serve as reference points for them, or they can be controlled by operators. These drones are in service with more than a dozen states.

The heavy American army UAV is the RQ-7 Shadow, which conducts reconnaissance at the brigade level. It has been mass-produced since 2004 and has a two-keel plumage with a pusher propeller and several modifications. These drones are equipped with conventional or infrared video cameras, radar, target illumination, laser rangefinders, and multispectral cameras. Guided five-kilogram bombs are suspended from the vehicles.

The RQ-5 Hunter is a mid-size, half-ton drone, a joint US-Israeli development. In its arsenal there is a television camera, a third-generation thermal imager, a laser rangefinder and other equipment. It is launched from a special platform with a rocket booster. Its flight zone is within a range of up to 270 km, for 12 hours. Some Hunter modifications have pendants for small bombs.

MQ-1 Predator is the most famous American UAV. This is the "transformation" of a reconnaissance drone into a strike drone, which has several modifications. The Predator conducts reconnaissance and delivers precision ground strikes. It has a maximum takeoff weight of more than a ton, a radar station, several video cameras (including an IR system), other equipment and several modifications.

In 2001, a high-precision laser-guided Hellfire-C missile was created for him, which was used in Afghanistan the following year. The complex has four drones, a control station and a satellite communications terminal, and costs more than four million dollars. The most advanced modification is the MQ-1C Gray Eagle with a larger wingspan and a more advanced engine.

The MQ-9 Reaper is the next American strike UAV with several modifications, known since 2007. It has a longer flight time, guided bombs, and more advanced radio electronics. The MQ-9 Reaper performed admirably in the Iraqi and Afghan campaigns. Its advantage over the F-16 is a lower purchase and operating price, a longer flight duration without risk to the pilot's life.

1998 - the first flight of the American strategic unmanned reconnaissance aircraft RQ-4 Global Hawk. Currently, this is the largest UAV with a takeoff weight of more than 14 tons, with a payload of 1.3 tons. It can stay in the airspace for 36 hours, while overcoming 22 thousand km. It is assumed that these drones will replace the U-2S reconnaissance aircraft.

Overview of Russian UAVs

What is currently at the disposal of the Russian army, and what are the prospects for Russian UAVs in the near future?

"Pchela-1T"- Soviet drone, first took off in 1990. He was a fire spotter for multiple launch rocket systems. It had a mass of 138 kg, a range of up to 60 km. He started from a special installation with a rocket booster, sat down by parachute. Used in Chechnya, but outdated.

"Dozor-85"- reconnaissance drone for the border service with a mass of 85 kg, flight time up to 8 hours. The Skat reconnaissance and strike UAV was a promising machine, but so far work has been suspended.

UAV "Forpost" is a licensed copy of the Israeli Searcher 2. It was developed back in the 90s. Forpost has a takeoff weight of up to 400 kg, a flight range of up to 250 km, satellite navigation and television cameras.

In 2007, a reconnaissance drone was adopted "Tipchak", with a launch weight of 50 kg and a flight duration of up to two hours. It has a regular and infrared camera. "Dozor-600" is a multi-purpose device developed by "Transas", was presented at the MAKS-2009 exhibition. He is considered an analogue of the American "Predator".

UAV "Orlan-3M" and "Orlan-10". They were developed for reconnaissance, search and rescue operations, target designation. The drones are extremely similar in their appearance. However, they differ slightly in their take-off weight and flight range. They take off with a catapult and land by parachute.

Probing the future of dogfighting: The Rafale fighter accompanies the Neuron strike drone, designed to break through heavily defended airspace. Due to the superior combat effectiveness of the new generation of surface-to-air missiles, only such stealthy strike UAVs (with a low effective scattering area) will be able to close in on a ground target and destroy it with a high probability of hitting and return home to prepare for the next battle.

Resembling giant stingrays, combat remote-controlled strike drones are considered one of the strangest flying systems ever invented by man. They represent the next evolutionary step in the art of war, as they will definitely soon become the vanguard of any modern air force, as they have a lot of undeniable advantages in frontal combat, especially when dealing with a strong symmetrical opponent.

Lessons that hardly anyone is taught

Essentially seen as a means of getting crews out of danger in areas with dense air defenses, where the chances of survival are not so great, attack unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are essentially the brainchild of countries with strong defense industries and solid annual budgets and often with high moral standards regarding the cost of the lives of its soldiers. In the past few years, the United States, Europe and Russia have been actively developing subsonic stealth UAVs, followed by China, always ready to copy and adapt everything that is invented in the world. These new weapons systems are very different from the MALE (medium-altitude, long-range) drones that everyone sees around the clock on their TV screens and which are built by well-known Israeli and American companies, such as IAI and General Atomics, which are today excellent experts in the field, by the well-researched Ryan Aero with its BQM-34 Firebee jet remotely controlled aircraft... 60 years ago.

UAVs are not just "armed" drones, as it may seem, even if today it is customary to classify UAVs like the armed MQ-1 Predator or MQ-9 Reaper, for example, as strike systems. This is a completely misused term. After all, apart from participating in offensive operations in safe or controlled airspace by allied forces, UAVs are completely incapable of passing through the battle formations of properly manned opponent systems. A visit to the Aerospace Museum in Belgrade acts as a real revelation in this area. In 1999, during NATO operations in Yugoslavia, at least 17 American RQ-1 Predators were shot down by either MiG fighters or Strela MANPADS missiles. Even despite their discretion, once discovered, MALE drones are doomed and will not survive even an hour. It is worth recalling that in the same campaign, the Yugoslav army destroyed an American F-117 Nighthawk stealth aircraft. For the first time in combat aviation, an aircraft that was not detected by radar and considered invulnerable was shot down. For the only time in its entire combat service, the F-117 was discovered and shot down, moreover, on a moonless night (there were only three such nights in the five-week war) by a rocket of the antiquarian S-125 air defense system of Soviet production. But the Yugoslavs were not a rabble of marginals with primitive notions of military art like the Islamic State (IS, banned in Russia) or the Taliban, they were well-trained and cunning professional soldiers, able to adapt to new threats. And they have proven it.

Military aviation is only a hundred years old, but it is already replete with spectacular inventions, the latest ones include attack unmanned aerial vehicles or combat drones. Over the course of a century, the concept of aerial combat has changed radically, especially since the end of the Vietnam War. The dogfights of the First and Second World Wars, using machine guns to destroy the enemy, have now become a page of history, and the advent of second-generation air-to-air missiles have turned cannons into a rather obsolete tool for this task, and now they are only useful as auxiliary weapons for shelling the earth from the air. Today, this trend is reinforced by the advent of hypersonic maneuverable missiles for engaging targets beyond the range of visual visibility, which, when launched in large numbers and in tandem with missiles of the wing aircraft, for example, leave almost no chance for evasive maneuver to any enemy flying at high altitude. The situation is the same with modern ground-to-air weapons controlled by an instantaneously reacting network-centric air defense computer system. Indeed, the level of combat effectiveness of modern missiles, which easily enter well-defended airspace, has become higher than ever in our days. Perhaps the only panacea for this is aircraft and cruise missiles with a reduced effective reflection area (EPO) or low-flying attack weapons with the mode of flying around and around the terrain at extremely low altitude.

At the turn of the new millennium, American pilots began to think about what could be done differently with remotely piloted aircraft, which had become quite a fashionable topic after its expanded use in military operations. As entry into well-defended airspace became more and more dangerous and associated with great risk to combat pilots, even those flying the latest jet fighter-bombers, the only way to solve this problem was to use weapons that were used outside the reach of enemy weapons. , and/or the creation of low-observable high subsonic attack drones capable of disappearing into the air through the use of special radar avoidance technologies, including radar absorbing materials and advanced jamming modes. Remotely controlled attack drones of a new type, using data transmission channels with enhanced encryption from frequency hopping, should be able to enter the protected "sphere" and set the work to air defense systems without risking the lives of flight crews. Their excellent maneuverability with increased g-forces (up to +/-15 g!) allows them to remain somewhat invulnerable to manned interceptors...

Aside the philosophy of "deny access / block zone"

With the creation of two advanced stealth aircraft, the F-117 Nighthawk and B-2 Spirit, presented with great fanfare and splurge - the first in 1988, and the second a decade later - the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency DARPA and the US Air Force played an important role in in order for this new technology to be successfully implemented and demonstrated its advantages in combat conditions. Although the stealthy F-117 tactical strike aircraft has now been retired, some of the technological developments gained from the development of this unusual aircraft (which periodically became the object of indignation of zealous adherents of aesthetics) were applied to new projects, such as the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II, and to an even greater extent in the promising bomber B-21 (LRS-B). One of the most secret programs that the United States is implementing is related to the further development of the UAV family using radar absorbing materials and modern technologies for actively providing extremely low visibility.

Building on UAV technology demonstration programs, the Boeing X-45 and Northrop Grumman X-47, whose accomplishments and results remain largely classified, Boeing's Phantom Works division and Northrop Grumman's secret division continue to develop attack drones today. A special mystery is shrouded in the RQ-180 UAV project, apparently being developed by Northrop Grumman. It is assumed that this platform will enter the closed airspace and conduct constant reconnaissance and surveillance, while simultaneously performing the tasks of active electronic suppression of enemy manned aircraft. A similar project is being implemented by the Skunks Works division of Lockheed Martin. In the process of developing the SR-72 hypersonic vehicle, the issues of safe operation of a reconnaissance UAV in protected airspace are being addressed, both through the use of its own speed and through advanced radar absorbing materials. Promising UAVs designed to break through modern (Russian) integrated air defense systems are also being developed by General Atomics; its new Avenger drone, also known as the Predator C, includes many innovative stealth elements. In fact, it is vital for the Pentagon today, as ever, to stay ahead of what Russia creates in order to maintain the current military imbalance in Washington's favor. And for the United States, the strike drone is becoming one of the means to ensure this process.

A Dassault Neuron drone returns to Istres Air Force Base from a night flight, 2014. Flight tests of the Neuron in France, as well as in Italy and Sweden in 2015, demonstrated its excellent flight and visibility characteristics, but all of them still remain classified. Armed drone Neuron is not the only European program to demonstrate UAV technology. BAE Systems is implementing the Taranis project, it has almost the same design and is equipped with the same RR Adour engine as the Neuron drone.

What the developers of American UAVs today call "protected airspace" is one of the components of the concept of "denial of access / blocking the zone" or a single (integrated) air defense system successfully deployed today by the Russian armed forces, both in Russia itself and abroad. its borders in order to provide cover for the expeditionary forces. No less smart and savvy than American military developers, albeit with significantly less money, Russian researchers from the Nizhny Novgorod Research Institute of Radio Engineering (NNIIRT) created a mobile two-coordinate radar station with a circular view of the meter range (from 30 MHz to 1 GHz) P-18 ( 1RL131) "Terek". The latest versions of this station, with their own specific frequency ranges, can detect F-117 and B-2 bombers from several hundred kilometers, and this remains no mystery to Pentagon experts!

Starting in 1975, NNIIRT developed the first three-coordinate radar station capable of measuring the height, range and azimuth of a target. As a result, the surveillance radar 55ZH6 "Sky" of the meter range appeared, the deliveries of which to the armed forces of the USSR began in 1986. Later, after the demise of the Warsaw Pact, NNIIRT designed the 55Zh6 Nebo-U radar, which became part of the S-400 Triumf long-range air defense system currently deployed around Moscow. In 2013, NNIIRT announced the next model 55Zh6M Nebo-M, in which VHF and UHF radars are combined in a single module. With vast experience in developing high-end stealth target detection systems, the Russian industry is currently very active and offers new digital versions of the P-18 radar to its allies, which can often simultaneously perform the functions of an air traffic control radar. Also, Russian engineers have created new digital mobile radar systems "Sky UE" and "Sky SVU" on a modern element base, all with the ability to detect subtle targets. Similar complexes for the formation of unified air defense systems were later sold to China, while Beijing got at its disposal a good irritant for the US military. The radar systems are expected to be deployed in Iran to defend against any Israeli attack on its fledgling nuclear industry. All new Russian radars are solid-state active phased array antennas capable of operating in fast sector/path scanning mode or traditional circular scanning mode with mechanically rotating antennas. The Russian idea of ​​integrating three radars, each of which operates in a separate range (meter, decimeter, centimeter), is undoubtedly a breakthrough and is aimed at obtaining the possibility of detecting objects with extremely small signs of visibility.

The Nebo-M radar system itself is radically different from previous Russian systems, since it has good mobility. Its design was originally designed to avoid unexpected blitz destruction by American F-22A Raptor fighters (armed with GBU-39 / B SDB bombs or JASSM cruise missiles), whose primary task is the destruction of low-frequency detection systems of the Russian air defense system in the first minutes of the conflict. The 55ZH6M Nebo-M mobile radar complex includes three different radar modules and one signal processing and control machine. Three radar modules of the Nebo M complex are: RDM-M of the meter range, a modification of the Nebo-SVU radar; RLM-D decimeter range, modification of the radar "Opponent-G"; RLM-S centimeter range, modification of the Gamma-S1 radar. The system uses state-of-the-art digital moving target indicator and digital pulse-Doppler radar technologies, as well as a spatiotemporal data processing method, which provides air defense systems such as the S-300, S-400 and S-500 with amazingly fast response, accuracy and the power of action against all targets, except for subtle ones flying at extremely low altitudes. As a reminder, one S-400 system deployed by Russian troops in Syria was able to close a circular zone around Aleppo with a radius of about 400 km from access to allied aviation. The complex, armed with a combination of at least 48 missiles (from 40N6 long-range to 9M96 medium-range), is able to cope with 80 targets simultaneously ... In addition, it keeps Turkish F-16 fighters in good shape and keeps them from rash acts in the form of an attack on the Su-24 in December 2015, since the zone controlled by the S-400 air defense system partially captures the southern border of Turkey.

For the United States, the research of the French company Onera, published in 1992, was a complete surprise. They talked about the development of a 4D (four-coordinate) RIAS radar (Synthetic Antenna and Impulse Radar - an antenna with a synthetic aperture of pulsed radiation), based on the use of a transmitting antenna array (simultaneous emission of a set of orthogonal signals) and a receiving antenna array (formation of a sampled signal in processing equipment signals providing Doppler frequency filtering, including spatiotemporal beamforming and target detection). The 4D principle allows the use of fixed sparse antenna arrays operating in the meter band, thus providing excellent Doppler separation. The great advantage of low frequency RIAS is that it generates a stable, unreduced effective target area, provides a larger coverage area and better beam analysis, as well as improved localization accuracy and target selectivity. Enough to fight low-profile targets on the other side of the border...

Creation of inconspicuous UAVs

Well-informed about a new effective barring system that would counter Western manned aircraft in wartime, the Pentagon settled at the turn of the century on a new generation of stealth jet-powered flying wing attack drones. New unmanned vehicles with low visibility will be similar in shape to a stingray, tailless with a body smoothly turning into wings. They will have a length of approximately 10 meters, a height of one meter and a wingspan of about 15 meters (the naval version is suitable for standard American aircraft carriers). The drones will be able to either carry out surveillance missions lasting up to 12 hours or carry weapons weighing up to two tons for distances up to 650 nautical miles, cruising at a speed of about 450 knots, which is ideal for suppressing enemy air defenses or launching a first strike. A few years earlier, the US Air Force brilliantly paved the way for the use of armed drones. First flown in 1994, the RQ-1 Predator MALE Piston-powered UAV was the first remotely controlled aerial platform capable of delivering air-to-ground weapons to a target with high accuracy. As a technologically advanced combat drone, armed with two AGM-114 Hellfire anti-tank missiles adopted by the Air Force in 1984, it has been successfully deployed in the Balkans, Iraq and Yemen, as well as Afghanistan. Undoubtedly vigilant sword of Damocles over the heads of terrorists around the world!

If Boeing was the first creator of the X-45 UAV capable of dropping a bomb, then the US Navy did not engage in practical work on UAVs until 2000. Then he issued contracts to Boeing and Northrop Grumman for a program to study this concept. The design requirements for the maritime UAV included operation in a corrosive environment, takeoff and landing on the deck of an aircraft carrier and related maintenance, integration into command and control systems, as well as resistance to high electromagnetic interference inherent in aircraft carrier operating conditions. The fleet was also interested in purchasing UAVs for reconnaissance tasks, in particular, for penetrating into protected airspace in order to identify targets for subsequent attacks on them. Northrop Grumman's X-47A Pegasus, which became the basis for the development of the X-47B J-UCAS platform, first flew in 2003. The US Navy and Air Force ran their own UAV programs. The Navy selected the Northrop Grumman X-47B platform as the UCAS-D unmanned combat system demonstrator. In order to carry out realistic tests, the company manufactured a device of the same size and weight as the planned production platform, with a full-size weapons bay capable of accepting existing missiles. The X-47B prototype was rolled out in December 2008, and taxiing with its own engine took place for the first time in January 2010. The first flight of the X-47B drone, capable of semi-autonomous operation, took place in 2011. Later, he took part in real sea trials aboard aircraft carriers, performing tasks together with F-18F Super Hornet carrier-based fighters and refueling in the air from the KS-707 tanker. What can I say, a successful premiere in both areas.

While the American industry was already testing the first models of its UAVs with might and main, other countries, albeit with a ten-year delay, began to create similar systems. Among them are the Russian RAC "MiG" with the device "Skat" and the Chinese CATIC with a very similar "Dark Sword". In Europe, the British company BAE Systems went its own way with the Taranis project, while other countries joined forces to develop a project with the rather apt name nEUROn. In December 2012, nEUROn made its first flight in France. Flight tests for operating ranges and evaluating stealth characteristics were successfully completed in March 2015. These tests were followed by avionics tests in Italy, which were completed in August 2015. At the end of last summer, the last stage of flight tests took place in Sweden, within the framework of which tests were carried out on the use of weapons. Classified test results are called positive.

The contract for the nEUROn project worth 405 million euros is being implemented by several European countries, including France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. This allowed the European industry to begin a three-year phase of refining the concept and design of the system, with related research into visibility and data rate enhancement. This phase was followed by a development and assembly phase ending with first flight in 2011. In two years of flight testing, about 100 sorties were made, including the release of a laser-guided bomb. The initial budget of 400 million euros in 2006 increased by 5 million because a modular bomb bay was added, including a target designator and the laser-guided bomb itself. France at the same time paid half of the total budget.

The potential of the British-French UAV

In November 2014, the governments of France and the UK announced a two-year study into the feasibility of a €146 million advanced strike drone project. This may lead to the implementation of a stealth UAV program, which will combine the experience of the Taranis and nEUROn projects in order to create a single promising strike drone. Indeed, in January 2014, at the British air base Brize Norton, Paris and London signed a statement of intent on a promising strike air system FCAS (Future Combat Air System). Since 2010, Dassault Aviation, together with its partners Alenia, Saab and Airbus Defense & Space, has been working on the nEUROn project, and BAE Systems on its own Taranis project. Both flying wing craft are powered by the same Rolls-Royce Turbomeca Adour turbofan engine. The decision adopted in 2014 gives a new impetus to joint research already being implemented in this direction. It is also an important step towards British-French cooperation in the field of military aircraft construction. It is possible that it could become the basis for another first-class achievement like the Concorde aircraft project. This decision will undoubtedly contribute to the development of this strategic area, since UAV projects will help maintain technological experience in the aviation industry at the level of world standards.

Meanwhile, the European FCAS program and similar American UAV programs are facing certain difficulties, since defense budgets on both sides of the Atlantic are quite tight. It will take more than 10 years before stealth UAVs begin to take over from manned combat aircraft, performing high-risk missions. Experts in the field of military drones are confident that the air force will begin to deploy stealth attack drones no earlier than 2030.

According to the websites:
www.nationaldefensemagazine.org
www.ga.com
www.northropgrumman.com
www.dassault-aviation.com
www.nniirt.ru
www.hongdu.com.cn
www.boeing.com
www.baesystems.com
www.wikipedia.org

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American analysts gave a mixed assessment of the latest Russian military ground and airborne drones. Some products, experts say, are practically foreign analogues, while others are clones of foreign developments. Experts agree on one thing: the war of the future is impossible without robots, and Russia will have to comply with modern realities.

Friends nearby

The Orion UAV (flight range - 250 kilometers, duration - up to a day) is suspiciously similar to the Iranian Shahed. The original product was used by Iran in Syria, it was also seen in Lebanon.

The main Russian drone Forpost was borrowed from Israel, where it is produced by IAI (Israel Aerospace Industries) under the name Searcher. Bendett ironically notes that Israel manages to receive multi-billion dollar military aid from the United States and at the same time sell defense technology to Russia.

No connection

According to Bendett, development of Russia's first heavy drone, the Altair, is behind schedule and under budget, and has been delayed indefinitely as a result.

Russian developers claim that the device weighing three tons with a wingspan of 28.5 meters is capable of carrying a load of up to two tons, covering a distance of ten thousand kilometers, climbing to a height of up to 12 kilometers and being in autonomous flight for up to two days. The prototype of the device made its first flight in August 2016, its mass production is scheduled for 2018.

In his report, Bendett noted that the director of the Kazan Design Bureau named after Simonov, who is creating a combat drone, was recently removed from his position (in fact, documents were seized in the bureau, and investigators talked to its head).

Bendett concludes that UAVs developed directly in Russia tend to be smaller and limited in range compared to foreign ones, but the expert admits that the Russian authorities have recently paid great attention to the development of unmanned systems - in particular, innovation and funding. .

The Russian military is getting a lot of practical experience with drones, and one of the main purposes of the Orlan-10 apparatus is to assist in radio suppression. Three aircraft capable of carrying six kilograms of load are controlled from one KamAZ-5350: one drone acts as a repeater, and the other two are involved in creating radio interference.

In the development of GSM jamming complexes (in the specific case, RB-341V "Leer-3"), Russia is a leader and ahead of the United States. It is precisely in the creation of radio interference, and not for delivering a direct strike, that the United States sees the main danger of flying drones being created in Russia. In this context, the expert, of course, did not forget to mention a possible attack by the Russian military on soldiers' mobile phones.

Strong point

Outside the context of electronic warfare, the United States does not yet take Russian military drones seriously, but ground-based drones being developed in Russia are of great concern to American experts.

"Russia is building a whole menagerie of armed ground robots - down to the size of armored personnel carriers," said Paul Sharr, director of technology and security for the Center for a New American Security. He noted the 11-ton "Uran-9", the 16-ton "Whirlwind" and the 50-ton T-14 ("Armata" with an uninhabited tower).

Photo: Valery Melnikov / RIA Novosti

“Many of these heavy vehicles are heavily armed, and the Russians often display these prototypes at exhibitions,” agrees Bendett, who attended the recently concluded annual US Army Association conference and exhibition.

On the other hand, according to analysts, many Russian robots look more like publicity stunts than real combat vehicles. To those, in particular, the experts attributed the anthropomorphic robot Fedor (FEDOR - Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research), capable of firing a pistol. The creators of Fedor boasted that the robot could sit on the twine and mastered the work of a storekeeper.

Most robots, as experts rightly point out, are not created from scratch, but in fact are ordinary armored vehicles converted for remote control. They cannot be considered truly autonomous products, since their operation requires the presence of a person, albeit outside the machine.

The automatic turret, created in Russia, according to Sharr, has "problems with distinguishing between an ally and an enemy in autonomous mode." However, he admits that with the development of artificial intelligence systems, the unit will cope with this task.

Bendett noted that most of the American military ground drones are remotely controlled (this makes it easier for the enemy to suppress radar), too light and practically not equipped with weapons, that is, in fact, they are not full-fledged combat robots. At present, American ground-based drones are as militarily useless as Russian drones.

Ultimately, experts found it difficult to name a leader in the development of drones. Scherr suggested that the United States is lagging behind Russia in the development of large ground combat robots due to ethical difficulties, involving the rationale for the possibility of destroying a person by a machine, as well as a "lack of ideas." Bendett, on the contrary, believes that Russia is now in the role of catching up, but is actively working to overcome the backlog in the development of aerial drones.

just business

It must be admitted that in the military conflicts of the future, unmanned systems will play one of the key roles. This component of weapons is spelled out in the American "third offset strategy", which provides for the use of the latest technologies and control methods to achieve an advantage over the enemy. Currently, almost all countries of the world that have any noticeable weapons are developing promising drones.

“Priorities are mainly given not so much to the modernization of old types of weapons, but to the creation of new ones. These are promising aviation systems, including military transport and long-range aviation, these are unmanned systems, robotics, that is, everything related to the possibility and necessity of withdrawing a person from the affected area, ”the Deputy Prime Minister explained the concept of the upcoming draft of the Russian state arms program for 2018-2025.

On the other hand, any discussion of the problem of the backlog in armaments comes down to the issue of funding. In such a situation, the conversion component of new technologies is interesting. The expediency of creating hypersonic missiles and electromagnetic weapons in Russia in the conditions of economic stagnation is doubtful, while in the field of developing unmanned systems there are much fewer of them.

The latest version of the national budget for 2018 provides for an increase in the share of military spending by 179.6 billion rubles, while spending on social policy, education and healthcare is proposed to be reduced by 54 billion rubles. Thus, in 2018, the share of military spending could reach 3.3 percent of the country's GDP.