UAVs conquer the sky
Not many people know that the first unmanned aerial vehicles appeared at the end of the century before last thanks to the famous inventor, whom many are inclined to consider as a mystic scientist, Nicole Tesla. It was Tesla who first designed and demonstrated the object, which was controlled using a radio signal. It happened back in 1898. After 12 years, the idea of Tesla's radio-controlled unmanned vehicles and the initial aviation successes were picked up by an American engineer named Kettering. It is he who is considered the creator of the world's first military UAV, the purpose of which was as follows: at a certain point in time, this aircraft should stone fall on the enemy, causing it certain damage. In the mid-1910s, the U.S. military became interested in the development of Kettering, and several devices of the described type were ordered for the needs of the US Army.
Time passed and the design drones improved. Today it is already difficult to imagine the army of a developed state in which UAVs would not be used. Since the time that drones have received significant electronic, optical and shock stuffing, which allows not only to control the airborne board with the help of a remote control and perform a high-quality study of the terrain, but also to deliver preventive strikes, UAVs have often been referred to as drones. This word translated into Russian means "drone". These aircraft were first used as reconnaissance aircraft again by the Americans in the late 40s - early 50s of the last century. The first UAV with military reconnaissance functions, developed in 1948, was called the AQM-34 "Firebee" ("Fire Bee"). It was a design of impressive size and weight. The AQM-34 had a wingspan of over 4,4 m and a total weight of over 2,2 tons. It is obvious that significant efforts were required to launch such an apparatus. However, this did not prevent the Americans from successfully using their reconnaissance UAV in military conflicts, including in Vietnam. For a long time, it was the Americans who were considered, so to speak, trendsetters in terms of creating UAVs of various modifications.
The next modification of the UAV can be called a classic multifunctional drone. Drones are military variations of unmanned aerial vehicles, which are robotized and, based on a set of software and hardware features, can perform various tasks while being in the air for several hours and flying several hundred kilometers without additional charging.
Drones have become simply indispensable in modern conditions of conducting reconnaissance and combat operations. The main advantage of using drones, among which there are often so-called multikopter (UAV equipped with several screws), is that the risk of hitting the aircraft’s crew completely disappears (there is simply no crew), plus a cheaper option for the same intelligence, rather than the use of helicopter with a crew on board. Today opportunity buy multicopter (drone) for military purposes are considered by various armies of the world. One has to be content with foreign samples, others follow the path of stimulating domestic development.
If we talk about Russia, a few months ago on the agenda was the task of acquiring Israeli-made unmanned aerial vehicles and their subsequent operation. At the same time, the leadership of the main military department, which is the main customer of the UAV, was not embarrassed by the fact that Israeli drones were far from being a new generation of combat drones and, moreover, they were not cheap at all.
After debriefing (in the literal and figurative sense), the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation decided to take the path of funding research in the field of domestic UAV developments. But for now the positive in this direction is still far away. Here is one example.
Literally the other day, information came that the Zalka and Outpost were being tested at the Salk flying range near Yekaterinburg. These UAVs were developed by one of the enterprises of the defense industrial complex Oboronprom, namely, the Ural civil aviation plant. According to representatives of the defense industrial complex Oboronprom, tests of Russian UAVs are successful even at air temperatures around -30 Celsius. At an altitude of 2 kilometers, to which Zastava and Outpost were raised, the temperature dropped to critical values in –50-55 Celsius, but the drone systems operated normally.
Tests of Forpost (UAI Searcher Mk II) drone assembled at the Ural Civil Aviation Plant OJSC for the Russian Ministry of Defense. Salka, 25.12.2012 (c) OAO OPK Oboronprom
Despite the fact that the UAVs are created by domestic specialists, neither Zastava nor Forpost are fully Russian-named. The fact is that on UZGA work according to the schemes and drawings, which in the framework of the sensational contract was provided by the very Israeli side - the company IAI Ltd. In addition to the drawings, the Israelis handed over to the Ural enterprise control and test stands, training and technological equipment. In other words, Zastava and Outpost are Israeli drones that have received Russian names on Russian territory and are assembled by Russian workers. Zastava is nothing more than the BirdEye 400 UAV, and the Outpost is the Searcher MkII.
It would seem that rejoicing in such a “screwdriver assembly” of foreign UAVs is not worth it. But the defense industrial complex Oboronprom has a different opinion. Based on the experimental models of Israeli UAVs in the Urals, it is planned in the near future to create its own drone, which in its characteristics will surpass many of the existing analogues. How fast will this future be? - there is no answer to this question yet. But there is an answer to what type the new Russian drone can belong to.
According to a representative of the Russian Helicopters holding, this will be a helicopter-type unmanned drone, possibly Multicopter. While the holding does not reveal the details of the new drone, but they talk about possible problems. One of the challenges that developers will have to tackle is that a helicopter-type UAV requires a relatively flat landing ground (and the plan of developers for landing drone for military purposes, including the enemy’s rear, is included). To solve this problem, it will be possible to apply a semblance of a gyroscopic system capable of maintaining equilibrium even at relatively large angles of inclination. At the same time, we should not forget about reducing the specific noise from several screws.
In the meantime, Russian specialists are puzzled over how to modernize Israeli drones and create their own unmanned reconnaissance and combat aircraft complexes, the armies of other countries of the world use UAVs very actively. Not so long ago, the Americans spread information that their drones had succeeded in destroying a whole militant camp in Pakistan. An air strike was inflicted on the bases of representatives of al-Qaeda (at least, representatives of the command of the US Army say so) in the province of North Waziristan. Shortly before that (last Sunday) a group of militants in the Pakistani province of South Waziristan was destroyed with the help of an American UAV air strike. The Americans then counted 9 killed, who were immediately dubbed representatives of the Taliban movement.
Pakistani authorities have repeatedly expressed disapproval of the actions of Americans in the airspace of their country. The fact is that official reports on the performance of combat operations by the US military do not always coincide with the data provided by the Pakistanis. It often happens that an American drone strikes a group of militants, and women and children are killed and wounded ... However, not a single American UAV operator, at the signal of which the missile was launched at civilians, has not yet been justly punished. Most often, it all comes down to the fact that the Americans admit their guilt, claiming a fatal and unintended error. And who can even check: was it a mistake or a conscious action? Certainly not the Pakistani authorities, even if they want to initiate such a check ...
Information about the use of UAVs with intelligence functions comes from the Far East (not Russian). Tokyo and Beijing almost simultaneously announced that they were creating special groups of drones that would be ready to monitor the territory of the disputed Senkaku Islands (Diaoyudao) day and night, as well as the waters that these islands washed around. Intelligence will be conducted with the aim of witnessing a possible "invasion" of the territory of the islands by their opponent. Neither Tokyo nor Beijing have yet spoken about what measures the parties to the conflict are prepared to take in the event of a “invasion” being recorded. But if it comes to real conflict, the world can witness the first large-scale confrontation of drones from different states.
Information