A brief history of high-end UAV development

High altitude long endurance

The early UAVs have the advantages of short stay in the air, low flight height, small reconnaissance and surveillance area, unable to obtain information continuously, and even cause "blind area" of intelligence, which is not suitable for the needs of modern war. For this reason, the U.S. Army has developed the "til" II super high altitude, long endurance UAV. UAV manufacturer

Stealth drone

In order to deal with the increasing threat of ground air defense fire, many advanced stealth technologies are applied to the development of UAV. First, composite materials, radar absorbing materials and low noise engine are used. For example, the U.S. military "til" II UAV, except for the main beam, almost uses graphite composite materials, and has made a special design for the engine outlet and satellite communication antenna. When the flight height is more than 300 meters, the human ear cannot hear; when the flight height is more than 900 meters, the naked eye cannot see. The second is to apply a special paint which can absorb infrared light on the surface of the fuselage and inject a chemical agent which can prevent infrared radiation into the engine fuel. The third is to reduce the gap on the fuselage surface and the radar reflecting surface. Fourthly, the charging surface coating also has the characteristics of color change: from the ground up, the UAV has the same color as the sky; from the air down, the UAV presents the same color as the earth.

Air early warning UAV manufacturer

The U.S. military believes that the air reconnaissance system in the 21st century is mainly composed of UAVs. The U.S. military plans to replace E-3 and E-8 manned early warning drones with early warning drones, calling them the main force of aviation reconnaissance in the 21st century.

Air fighting

Attacking UAV is an important development direction of UAV. Because the UAV can be deployed forward in advance, it can destroy the incoming missile at a long distance from the defending target, so it can effectively overcome the shortcomings of long reaction time, short interception distance and damage to the defending target caused by the wreckage of the "Patriot" or C-300 anti missile missile missile. For example, Germany's Dar attack UAV can effectively deal with a variety of surface to air missiles and open up air channels for its own attack aircraft. Israel's "habi" anti radiation UAV has the capability of automatic search, all-weather attack and simultaneous attack on multiple targets.

It is worth noting that UAV is one of the remote control weapons, which must be selected by the operator and activate, aim and launch related weapons. Therefore, UAVs are not autonomous weapons.

Warship Airport

The U.S. Bureau of planning and research recently announced the launch of the "tactical use of reconnaissance nodes project", or "yan'ou" project, which envisages the use of smaller ships as a mobile launch and recovery platform for hollow long endurance fixed wing UAVs. According to the plan, the next generation of UAVs will be able to take off and land on small surface warships, so as to expand the operational scope of U.S. UAVs and enable them to reach more distant battlefields. UAV manufacturer

All warships become UAV platforms

"Yan'ou" will be a great leap forward for US Navy UAV. At present, the U.S. Navy can take off the 10 foot wide "scan Eagle" UAV from destroyers and other ships, and can take off the "Fire Scout" UAV from coastal combat ships. In addition to the development of the x-47b prototype and its carrier derived UAV, the U.S. is also developing the land-based non armed patrol "wide area maritime surveillance (BAMS)" UAV, which is based on the U.S. Air Force's "Global Hawk" UAV, and the volume of the "Global Hawk" UAV is similar to Boeing 737. In theory, the wide area maritime surveillance UAV can take off with the help of most surface warships in the United States - the U.S. Navy has 122 surface warships - but the UAV is not good in range, speed and load. As a result, the United States lacks a medium weight UAV: an armed UAV that takes up little deck space and can take off and land on a variety of surface ships at a fast speed and with a long range.

According to the U.S. Bureau of planning and research, the development of reliable launch and recovery technology is an important technical obstacle for the yan'ou UAV project. Littoral battleships and destroyers do not have the deck space needed for UAVs to take off from long runways, so they rely on "scan Hawk" UAVs taking off with aircraft catapults and unmanned helicopters taking off vertically. In the 1980s and early 1990s, the US Navy's four World War II battleships were equipped with "vanguard" drones - about twice the size of the "scan Hawk" - which were launched with a strap on booster.

The pioneer drone landed with a net, the scan hawk drone landed with a line in the air, and the Fire Scout drone landed vertically. Compared with the old UAV, the high-performance, fixed wing UAV needs more powerful driving force, and landing is more difficult.

It is worth noting that in the 1990s, American helicopter manufacturer bell designed a small "eagle eye" tilt rotor UAV - similar to the V-22 "Osprey" tilt rotor aircraft of the same company - which can take off and land like a helicopter, but thanks to its engine nacelle, the UAV can cruise like an aircraft. However, the eagle eye drone never found a buyer and was eventually abandoned. "Yan'ou" UAV project is likely to revive the "eagle eye" UAV project.