On the problem of modern UAVs in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
When conducting combat operations (combat operations against the regular army of a developed state, and not Papuans or pygmies with Kalashnikov assault rifles), such as reconnaissance, low-level bombing, air-to-ground missile launches against hard-to-reach targets (like caves in the mountains), and more .d., now existing UAVs that are domestic, that foreign-made will use the GPS or GLONASS navigation system. To control the flight of the UAV, that we have, that abroad uses satellite navigation system GPS (GLONAS) in combination with a digital inertial guidance system. The accuracy of the digital inertial system alone is not enough. But it never occurs to anyone that it is in wartime that the use of these navigation systems for UAVs will be in question. When reconnaissance or target designation, for example, on a group of standing tanks, the UAV needs to 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 located, therefore, appropriate equipment is installed on the device. Know your geographic coordinates drone it is also necessary to return to the base, where he must fly with reconnaissance information or for refueling. For point bombing and for launching air-to-ground missiles, it is also necessary to determine the current coordinates of the UAV relative to the targets selected for destruction with the highest possible accuracy. Inertial navigation devices do not provide the required accuracy, so we have to resort to the help of satellites.
And now let us ask ourselves a question: what will happen if the on-board GPS receiver or other similar systems are put out of action by the impact of special electronic warfare units on it? The answer is clear: the receiver will turn into a useless load. Together with him, the reconnaissance and shock UAVs themselves will become useless (and even dangerous), since they will no longer be correctly oriented in space.
At the end of the 20th century, at one of the international air shows, the Russian company demonstrated the first device for suppressing 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 transition of the Russian Air Force to a new look, a number of intensive measures are planned to create a qualitatively new unmanned aviation equipment, 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 performed by the currently piloted army, front-line 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 can make up to 40% of the total number of all combat aircraft. ” Oh how! It turns out that domestic UAVs, which are practically “unparalleled”, or rather completely unsuitable for conducting combat operations against a real enemy, and not the Papuans, will begin to enter the troops next year!
In particular, if we analyze the subject on which the Defense Ministry allegedly wants to conduct various research works, then, for example, on the website of the Defense Ministry there is a certain “List of areas of military-technical scientific research” conducted by the Russian Defense Ministry grants. In this “list”, for example, you can see the following areas in which (theoretically, a long time ago) the development of a domestic UAV for the needs of the RF Armed Forces (for convenience, some items not related to UAVs were omitted) should have been carried out:
1. Ways to counter threats to the military security of the Russian Federation by asymmetric methods.
- methods and means of reducing the effectiveness and ways of overcoming modern and prospective systems of air and aerospace defense;
- Ways and means of conducting contactless combat operations.
2. Directions for the creation of new types of military-technical systems based on promising technologies.
- robotic systems weapons;
- designs and methods of high-speed movement in dense environments, hypersonic technology.
3. Prospects for the development of information management systems and means of information confrontation.
- methods and means of synthesis into a unified system of heterogeneous objects of management and control;
- systems and means of telecommunications for military purposes;
- methods and tools for automated data analysis and decision support;
- methods and means of protecting military information resources.
One would like to add "and animal husbandry" (C) "A billion years before the end of the world," the Strugatsky brothers.
There are also opinions that "drone drums" is generally a stillborn idea. They say, for example, that they have long existed, and are called “Winged Rocket”. It is also said that the idea to make cruise missiles reusable and comparable in combat capabilities with attack aircraft will result in the creation of a classic aircraft, only without a pilot inside. With the same mass, price and performance characteristics *, and saving the pilot's weight — a maximum of one hundred kilograms — can hardly be significant on machines carrying weapons in tons. Let us try to refute such pessimistic moods that take place both among the leadership of the Defense Ministry and among those who are an ardent “theoretical” opponent of large, heavy, intelligent, high-tech and, accordingly, expensive domestic UAVs.
Let's try to formulate the main technical requirements for modern UAVs, basic data for their development, we will try to determine the purpose of the XXI century UAV, the scope of their application, as well as special requirements due to the specifics of both the UAV and the conditions of its operation. As a rule, such requirements are determined on the basis of a thorough analysis of the results of many years of preliminary research, calculations and simulations, but we, from our amateurish point of view, will still try to solve such a complex task “in mind”.
As one of the concepts for the combat use of a promising modern UAV, there is a “robotized” complex that works in tandem with a manned combat aircraft. For example, the architecture of the on-board complex of an aircraft such as the PAK-FA, allows you to control up to 4-x UAVs that perform the function of a "weapon store" (or "long arm", or even "assault group").
Modern "transport" UAVs are extremely in demand in theaters of war with intersected relief, an underdeveloped road or airfield network. At the present time, it is possible to trace the urgent need for an unmanned helicopter that would carry out a quick transfer of cargo between units, both at the front and in the rear. The list of performance characteristics of modern UAVs includes: a 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 possibility of integrating a UAV into a unified system of diverse objects of control and monitoring; building automated combat networks; the onboard complex architecture, which allows real-time data transmission, as well as the presence of small-sized and high-precision weapons on board. In a modern war, the requirement for the presence of a combatant (read - “us”) UAV, which is not dependent on weather conditions, for continuous observation and reconnaissance is not only dominant, but mandatory.
Since we started the article with consideration of the requirements of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation for operational-tactical and strategic UAVs, we will form the technical requirements based on these conditions. Therefore, as we have already discussed above, the data of the UAV should:
- to be able to independently conduct aerial reconnaissance to a depth of 1000 kilometers, from low and medium altitudes, in simple and, necessarily, adverse weather conditions, at any time of day and time and year;
- be able to perform combat missions in the face of strong opposition from enemy air defenses and in the event of a complex electronic situation;
- be able to transmit the received intelligence information via secure communication channels in real time with the flight range from 1800 to 2500 kilometers with duration up to 24 hours.
In addition, a prospective UAV must be able to function both within the framework of human-machine interaction and within the framework of human-machine-machine.
Initially, we made a reservation that one of the concepts for the combat use of a promising domestic UAV is a “robotized” complex, which is paired with a manned combat aircraft. Consequently (at least for the main performance characteristics), a modern UAV should not yield to both modern and promising front-line aviation complexes, namely:
- the design of the UAV airframe should be performed using "stealth" technologies;
- UAV should have modern engines with a deflected thrust vector;
- the design of the UAV must provide for maneuvering combat, both at close and long distances, it must be able to fight, both with air, and ground or sea targets;
- modern UAV, of course, should be able to carry out the flight on cruising supersonic;
- UAV maximum speed must be within 2200-2600 km / h;
- the maximum range of the flight of the UAV should be at least 4000 km (without refueling) with the PTB;
- UAVs should be able to carry out refueling in the air from air tankers;
- UAVs must have a practical flight ceiling of at least 21000 meters and have a speed of at least 330 - 350 meters per second;
- A UAV should be able to use airfields with a runway no longer than 500 meters;
- the maximum operational overload of the UAV must not be less than 10-12 g (+/-).
During the flight, as a rule, the UAV should be controlled automatically by means of the onboard navigation and control complex, which should include:
- satellite navigation receiver providing reception of navigation information from GLONASS systems;
- a system of sensors that provides the definition of coordinates, orientation in space and determination of the motion parameters of the UAV;
- an information system that provides measurement of altitude and speed, and controls the organs of movement and maneuvering of the UAV;
- various types of antennas and radars designed to perform communication tasks, data transmission, interfacing into combat information systems and networks, detecting and tracking targets;
- the system of optical and inertial orientation in the space of the UAV, as a backup, a system of global positioning;
- an intelligent control system for a UAV and all its systems using inference and decision making procedures.
The onboard navigation and control system of the UAV should provide:
- flight on a given route;
- changing the route task or returning to the starting point upon command from the ground control station;
- change of the route task in connection with the changed conditions of the task;
- changing the routing task at the command of the information complex connected to the combat network;
- circling the specified point;
- selection, selection and recognition of targets, both at the operator’s command and in automatic mode;
- auto tracking of the selected target;
- stabilization of the orientation of the UAV;
- maintenance of the specified heights and speed of flight;
- collection and transmission of telemetric information on flight parameters and operation of the target equipment;
- remote software control devices targeted equipment;
- transfer of information to the combat information network nodes and to the operator via encrypted communication channels;
- collection, accumulation, interpretation of the obtained data, as well as their dissemination within the framework of the combat information system;
- the UAV control system should provide for the take-off 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.
On-board communication system:
- should function over secure communication channels;
- should provide data transmission from side to side and from ground to board to the nodes of the combat information system and receive incoming data from them;
Data transmitted from side to side or to nodes of a combat information system:
- telemetry parameters;
- streaming video of both target equipment and optical organs of orientation of the UAV;
- intelligence data;
- data of intellectual AB
- management teams as part of the combat information system.
The data transmitted on board contain:
- UAV control commands;
- commands to control the target equipment;
- management team of intellectual AB.
In the course of this project, the following tasks should be solved:
- analysis of flight, kinematic and tactical properties;
- development and production of a large-dimensional model that satisfies the tasks;
- development, production and research of fundamentally new structural diagrams and control systems;
- Experimental testing of UAV control strategies by means of full-scale modeling of the behavior of closed systems under conditions
uncertainty and the presence of external disturbances;
- development of scientific and methodological bases for designing three-dimensional UAV motion planners based on neuroprocessor systems;
- design of sensor systems based on television cameras, thermal imagers and other sensors providing for the collection, preliminary processing and transmission of information about the state of the external environment to the basic computer complex of UAVs;
- other tasks related to the creation of a modern UAV, which will necessarily arise in the process of project implementation.
The information that a UAV receives must be classified by its information system depending on the degree of threat presented. The classification should be carried out both at the command of the operator of the ground control station (NSO), and in automatic mode by the onboard 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 by 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 leaves much to be desired. However, the development of modern weapons systems stubbornly dictates to make the “leash” for the UAV longer and longer, because the “iron” soldier reacts to what is happening much faster than a living soldier, the “iron” soldier is not subject to the emotions that are typical of an ordinary soldier. If, for example, a link from a squadron came under fire from enemy air defenses, then a UAV with an intelligent control system can instantly fix the point of a shot, together with other UAVs united in a combat information network, plan an attack and retaliate the enemy air defense even before it has time hide, and maybe even before she has time to carry out an accurate shot.
* TTX - Tactical Specifications.
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