Recorded by N. Gelmiza

After articles about the work of the Sukhoi Design Bureau were published in the journal (see Science and Life No. 9, 2001 and Nos. 1, 2, 4, 2002), letters came to the editorial office with the question: does Does the firm have a civic theme? We were told: how! Sukhoi Design Bureau's civil aircraft are well-known Su-80, S-21 projects and a family of regional passenger aircraft. Today, design bureau designers are creating an unmanned aircraft civil purpose with unique flight performance characteristics, allowing it to be used to solve a wide range of tasks in the field of science, economics and the economic sector. A. Kh. Karimov, Deputy Chief Designer, Doctor of Technical Sciences, full member of the Academy of Military Sciences, speaks about a new direction - unmanned aircraft.

STARTING POINT

Deputy Chief Designer of Sukhoi Design Bureau Altaf Khusnimarzanovich Karimov.

Specifications unmanned aviation systems with high altitude and flight duration.

American unmanned aircraft "maxi"-class "Global Hawk": flight height - 20 km, weight - 11.5 tons, flight duration - more than 24 hours.

Multi-purpose unmanned aerial vehicle "Proteus" made in the USA: flight altitude - 15 km, weight - 5.6 tons.

The needs of the world market for unmanned aircraft systems with high altitude and flight duration. The procurement forecast for 2005-2015 totals $30 billion.

An unmanned aerial vehicle with a high altitude and flight duration is the long-awaited brainchild of the Sukhoi Design Bureau. The designers put into the new car such flight performance which, in our opinion, will allow it to surpass the best in its class in many ways. american planes and find wide application in the civil sector.

"UAVs" vary in weight (from devices weighing half a kilogram, comparable to an aircraft model, to 10-15-ton giants), height and flight duration. Unmanned aerial vehicles weighing up to 5 kg (class "micro") can take off from any smallest platform and even from the hand, rise to a height of 1-2 kilometers and stay in the air for no more than an hour. How reconnaissance aircraft use them, for example, to detect in the forest or in the mountains military equipment and terrorists. "UAVs" of the "micro" class weighing only 300-500 grams, figuratively speaking, can look out the window, so they are convenient to use in urban areas.

For "micro" are unmanned aerial vehicles of the "mini" class weighing up to 150 kg. They operate at an altitude of up to 3-5 km, the flight duration is 3-5 hours. The next class is "midi". These are heavier multi-purpose vehicles weighing from 200 to 1000 kg. The flight altitude reaches 5-6 km, duration - 10-20 hours.

And, finally, "maxi" - devices weighing from 1000 kg to 8-10 tons. Their ceiling is 20 km, the flight duration is more than 24 hours. Probably, supermaxi class cars will appear soon. It can be assumed that their weight will exceed 15 tons. Such "heavy trucks" will be carried on board great amount equipment for various purposes and will be able to perform a wide range of tasks.

If we recall the history of unmanned aerial vehicles, they first appeared in the mid-1930s. These were remotely controlled aerial targets used in firing practice. After the Second World War, more precisely, already in the 1950s, aircraft designers created unmanned reconnaissance aircraft. It took another 20 years to develop strike machines. In the 1970s - 1980s, the design bureaus of P. O. Sukhoi, A. N. Tupolev, V. M. Myasishchev, A. S. Yakovlev, N. I. Kamov dealt with this topic. The unmanned reconnaissance aircraft "Hawk", "Strizh" and the Reis, which is still in service today, as well as the shock "Korshun" (it began to be made at the Sukhoi Design Bureau, but then transferred to Tupolev), created jointly with the Research Institute "Kulon ". Quite successfully, the Yakovlev Design Bureau was engaged in unmanned aircraft, where "mini" class devices were developed. The most successful of them was the "Bee" complex, which is still in service.

In the 1970s, research work was launched in Russia to create unmanned aircraft with high altitude and flight duration. They were engaged in the design bureau of V. M. Myasishchev, where they developed the “maxi”-class “Eagle” machine. Then it came only to the layout, but after almost 10 years, work was resumed. It was assumed that the upgraded device will be able to fly at an altitude of up to 20 km and stay in the air for 24 hours. But then a reform crisis set in, and in the early 1990s, the Eagle program was closed due to lack of funding. Around the same time, and for the same reasons, work on the Romb unmanned aerial vehicle was curtailed. This aircraft, unique in its design, created jointly with NII DAR with the participation of the developer of the Rezonans radar system, Chief Designer E.I. radar station. Its mass was about 12 tons, and payload reached 1.5 tons.

After the first wave of drone development in the 1970s and 1980s, there was a long lull. The army was equipped with expensive manned aircraft. Large funds were allocated for them. This determined the choice of development topics. True, all these years the Kazan Experimental Design Bureau Sokol has been actively involved in drones. It was created on the basis of the Design Bureau of Sports Aviation under the leadership of the then young specialist, now the general designer of the Sukhoi Design Bureau M.P. Simonov. OKB "Sokol" has become, in essence, a specialized enterprise for the production of unmanned aerial systems. The main direction is unmanned aerial targets, on which the combat operations of various military complexes and ground services, including air defense systems, are practiced.

Today, mini- and midi-class unmanned aerial vehicles are widely represented. Their production is within the power of many countries, since small laboratories or institutes can cope with this task. As for the "maxi" class vehicles, their creation requires the resources of an entire aircraft building complex.

What are the advantages of unmanned aerial vehicles? Firstly, they are, on average, an order of magnitude cheaper than manned aircraft, which need to be equipped with life support, protection, air conditioning systems ... Finally, we need to train pilots, and this costs a lot of money. As a result, it turns out that the absence of a crew on board significantly reduces the cost of completing a particular task.

Secondly, lightweight (compared to manned aircraft) unmanned aerial vehicles consume less fuel. It seems that a more realistic prospect opens up for them even with a possible transition to cryogenic fuel (see "Science and Life" No. 3, 2001 - Note. ed.).

Third, unlike manned aircraft, unpiloted aircraft do not need concrete airfields. It is enough to build an unpaved runway with a length of only 600 meters. (“UAVs” take off with the help of a catapult, and land “like an airplane”, like fighters on aircraft carriers.) This is a very serious argument, since out of 140 of our airfields, 70% are in need of reconstruction, and the rate of repair today is one airfield per year.

The main criterion for choosing the type of aircraft is cost. Thanks to the rapid development of computer technology, the "stuffing" - the on-board computers of "drones" - has significantly fallen in price. The first devices used heavy and bulky analog computers. With the introduction of modern digital technology their "brain" has become not only cheaper, but also smarter, smaller and lighter. This means that more equipment can be taken on board, and the functionality of unmanned aircraft depends on it.

If we talk about the military aspect, then unmanned aerial vehicles are used where in reconnaissance operations or dogfight can do without a pilot. On IX international conference on "drones", which took place in 2001 in France, the idea was voiced that in 2010-2015 combat operations would be reduced to a war of automated systems, that is, to a confrontation between robots.

Five years ago, Sukhoi Design Bureau specialists analyzed the development of the world's scientific and technical programs for the creation of "drones" and found a steady trend towards an increase in their size and mass, as well as in flight height and duration. Devices with a large weight can stay in the air longer, rise higher and "see" further. "Maxi" take on board more than 500 kg of payload, which allows you to solve problems of large volume and with the best quality.

The analysis showed that unmanned aircraft of the "maxi" and "supermaxi" class are in demand today more than ever. Apparently, they can change the balance of power in the global aircraft market. So far, this niche has been explored only by American designers, who started working on "maxi"-class "drones" 10 years earlier than us and managed to create some very good aircraft. The most popular of them is the Global Hawk: it rises to a height of up to 20 km, weighs 11.5 tons, and has a cruising flight duration of more than 24 hours. The designers of this machine abandoned piston engines and equipped it with two turbojet engines. It was after the showing of "Global Hawk" at the air show in Le Bourget in 2001 that the West began to struggle to capture a new sector of the market.

We plan to create an analogue of the "Global Hawk", but our apparatus will be slightly smaller. The choice of this dimension is based on a rigorous study of demand.

Even during the creation of the first unmanned "maxi"-class "Eagle" and "Rhombus" we developed a concept, according to which we began to build unmanned aerial vehicles providing best conditions to accommodate the payload. On the "Rhombus", for example, we were able to combine large antenna units 15-20 m in size with aircraft elements. The result was a "flying antenna". Today we are creating, in fact, a flying platform for surveillance equipment. By connecting the payload with on-board systems, you can get a full-fledged integrated complex, equipped with electronic equipment to the maximum. It will be high quality the new kind aviation technology - a stratospheric platform for solving tasks that are either beyond the power of low-, medium-altitude manned and unmanned vehicles, or require unreasonably high costs when they are performed by satellite constellations.

Our S-62 unmanned aerial vehicle is an 8.5 ton machine capable of climbing to a height of 18-20 km/h, reaching a speed of 400-500 km/h, and staying in the air for more than 24 hours without refueling. Its dimensions: length - 14.4 m, height - 3 m, wingspan - 50 m, payload - 800-1200 kg. In terms of aerodynamic characteristics, the layout of the C-62 brings the device closer to the airframe. The aircraft is made according to the aerodynamic configuration of a two-beam "duck" and has a high elongation wing. On the center section of the wing is a vertical tail. Power point located above the center section in a twin engine nacelle. The S-62 is powered by two RD-1700 turbofan engines used on the Yak-130 and MiG-AT aircraft (although other engine options are being worked out). This machine will be light and radio-transparent, most likely made of fiberglass.

The S-62 will be part of the BAK-62 unmanned aerial systems designed to perform a wide range of civilian missions. Each such complex includes from one to three "drones", ground stations for monitoring and control, communications and information processing, as well as a mobile station Maintenance. Ground control stations will operate within radio visibility - at a distance of up to 600 km. Their purpose is to control takeoff and landing, as well as solve the problems of automatic piloting and the execution of the flight program. The BAK-62 is highly mobile, it can be easily relocated to a new location in standard cargo containers by any mode of transport, quickly deployed and put into working condition.

Ground control points, as well as maintenance points, are also the concern of designers. They should create conditions for comfortable living of specialists and service personnel both in the cold north and in the hot south (the temperature range can be from -50 to +50 o C).

The whole world has already realized what benefits and savings can bring unmanned aerial vehicles not only in the military, but also in the civilian sphere. Their capabilities largely depend on such a parameter as flight altitude. Having created the S-62, we will raise the ceiling from 6 to 20 km, and in the future up to 30 km. At this altitude, an unmanned aircraft can compete with a satellite. Tracking everything that happens on an area of ​​about a million square kilometers, he himself becomes a kind of "aerodynamic satellite". S-62s can take on the functions of a satellite constellation and perform them in real time within the entire region.

In order to take photographs and films from space or observe some object, 24 satellites are needed, but even then information from them will come once an hour. The fact is that the satellite is above the object of observation for only 15-20 minutes, and then leaves the zone of its visibility and returns to the same place, having made a revolution around the Earth. The object during this time leaves the given point, since the Earth rotates, and again appears in it only after 24 hours. Unlike a satellite, an unmanned aircraft accompanies the observation point constantly. After working at an altitude of about 20 km for more than 24 hours, he returns to the base, and another one leaves to take his place in the sky. Another car is on standby. This is a huge savings. Judge for yourself: one satellite costs about 100 million dollars, 24 satellites are already 2.4 billion, and the cost of three S-62 unmanned aerial vehicles with ground infrastructure will be a little over 30 million dollars.

Unmanned aircraft can also compete with satellites in the field of telecommunications networks and navigation systems. For example, in order for Russia to have its own navigation system such as GPS, about 150 such machines need to be used. Expensive satellites will be useful for other purposes. This is very important, since 70% of them are on the verge of exhausting their resource.

"UAVs" can be entrusted with continuous round-the-clock monitoring of the Earth's surface in a wide frequency range. Using the C-62, we will be able to create an information field of the country, covering the control and management of the movement of air and water transport, since these machines are able to take on the functions of ground, air and satellite radars (joint information from them gives a complete picture of what is being done in sky, water and land).

Unmanned aerial vehicles will help solve a whole range of scientific and applied problems related to geology, ecology, meteorology, zoology, agriculture, with the study of climate, the search for minerals ... C-62 will monitor the migration of birds, mammals, schools of fish, changes in weather conditions and ice conditions on rivers, the movement of ships, the movement of vehicles and people, conduct aerial, photographic and filming , radar and radiation reconnaissance, multispectral surface monitoring, penetrating deep into 100 meters.

Worldwide recognition came to the Sukhoi Design Bureau with the release of the Su-27 fighter. This machine really deserves the highest praise, because it implements outstanding scientific and engineering ideas. The colossal success and demand for the Su-27 on the world market is largely due to the fact that its creation has become a nationwide scientific and technical program. Started three years ago new topic- the creation of a high-altitude unmanned aircraft - also needs serious state support. In order, as they say, not to be late and enter the world market at the time when the new car will be in demand, the timing of the program must be very tight. It seems to us that the work can be completed in 2005, subject to the necessary funding.

The experience of foreign competitors suggests that in order for things to go faster, it is necessary to show customers and investors a working model. There is only one way out - to make a demonstrator or a flying model that will confirm the reality of the plans and speed up their implementation. Such an apparatus can be built in just two years. There are no unsolvable problems here, there are only a number of specific tasks that need to be completed. All preliminary work has been done.

According to Russian and foreign experts, the market commercial services provided by unmanned aerial vehicles will expand significantly in the near future. The need for such machines in 2005-2015 may amount to at least $30 billion in monetary terms. And if Russia, as planned, by 2005 creates a competitive civilian unmanned aerial vehicle S-62 with high altitude and flight duration, it will get about a quarter of this market. Then we can get about a billion dollars from the sale of our cars. It is not surprising that today many countries are very actively promoting their technical developments, including drones. We also need to hurry.

Scope of application of the C-62 civil unmanned aircraft

DETECTION OF SMALL OBJECTS:

• air
• surface
• ground

AIR TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT:

• in hard-to-reach areas
• during natural disasters and accidents
• on temporary airways
in aviation of the national economy

MARITIME CONTROL:

• search and detection of ships
• prevention of emergencies in ports
• control of maritime borders
• control of fishing regulations

DEVELOPMENT OF REGIONAL AND INTERREGIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION NETWORKS:

• communication systems, including mobile
• broadcasting
• relaying
• navigation systems

AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY AND SURFACE CONTROL:

• aerial photography (cartography)
• inspection of compliance with contractual obligations
• (open sky mode)
• control of hydro-, meteorological conditions
• control of actively emitting objects control of power lines

ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL:

• radiation control
• gas chemical control
• monitoring the condition of gas and oil pipelines
• interrogation of seismic sensors

PROVISION OF AGRICULTURAL WORK AND GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATION:

• soil characterization
• mineral exploration
• subsurface (up to 100 m) sounding of the Earth

OCEANOLOGY:

• ice reconnaissance
• sea ​​wave tracking
• search for schools of fish

Rolling out the demonstrator of the S-70 attack unmanned aerial vehicle according to the research work "Okhotnik-B"

As reported on June 28, 2018, the agency " Interfax " , the first Russian heavy attack drone of the Sukhoi Design Bureau "Okhotnik" entered the final stage of ground tests. This was reported to Interfax by a well-informed source.

"At the Novosibirsk Aviation Plant (NAZ, a branch of the Sukhoi company - IF), the first roll-out of the Okhotnik attack drone took place - it is undergoing ground tests on the eve of the first flight," the agency's interlocutor said.

"The first flight of the Hunter is expected in 2019," the source said.

The director of the directorate of military aviation programs of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), ex-commander-in-chief of the Russian Air Force, spoke about the ongoing research work at the Sukhoi Design Bureau to create a heavy attack drone in 2014 Vladimir Mikhailov.

“Now the work is underway, we are doing work on the Sukhoi, it’s called the Okhotnik. This machine is very promising, now research work is underway until 2015, with a subsequent transition to development work,” Mikhailov said on the air of the radio station " Echo of Moscow.

The characteristics of the drone under development are not currently disclosed. According to open data, takeoff weight will be 20 tons, which will make it the heaviest of the developed devices of this type. It was reported that it will take off for the first time in 2018, and in 2020 it will be put into service.

In 2017, a photograph of the Okhotnik was circulated on the Internet, cut from a presentation by the Russian Ministry of Defense, judging by which, the device is being developed according to the “flying wing” scheme with a three-post chassis.

Unmanned aerial vehicle S-70, created by PJSC "Company" Sukhoi "on research "Okhotnik-B" (c) Ministry of Defense of Russia (via paralay.iboards.ru)

A previously informed Interfax interlocutor reported on the testing of the Altius-O heavy strike drone weighing more than 7.5 tons, developed by the Simonov Design Bureau in Kazan.

Deputy General Director of Techmash (part of Rostec) Alexander Kochkin in March 2018, he told Interfax that the concern had begun developing a payload for drones - these could be both melee weapons and air bombs.

General Designer - UAC Vice President for Innovation Sergey Korotkov in December 2017, he told Interfax that Russia was working on the creation of strike drones that could be organized into groups and coordinated with each other via secure communication channels.

The development of a heavy drone was announced at the Army-2017 forum by the general director of RAC MiG Ilya Tarasenko. In November of the same year, a company representative noted that they were working on UAVs weighing from a ton to 15 tons.

Estimated appearance of the UAV S-70, created by PJSC "Company" Sukhoi "on the research "Okhotnik-B" (c) Piotr Butowski / Air&Cosmos

On the part of bmpd, we recall that, as our blog reported a year ago with reference to the publication of the Air & Cosmos magazine, as part of the Okhotnik research project, the S-70 stealth unmanned aerial vehicle is being created. Work on the research work "Hunter" is carried out by PJSC "Company" Sukhoi "under the contract of the Ministry of Defense of Russia, issued on October 14, 2011. The purpose of the research is to create an unmanned reconnaissance and strike system that would have high speed and autonomy. The S-70 UAV itself on the topic "Hunter" is characterized as "an unmanned aerial vehicle of the sixth generation."

It was reported that the S-70 UAV demonstrator was manufactured at the Novosibirsk Aviation Plant named after V.P. Chkalov - a branch of PJSC "Company" Sukhoi ", and the first flight of the demonstrator was previously scheduled for 2018. The mass of the UAV is in the range of 10-20 tons, and the maximum speed is estimated at 1000 km/h.

UAV "Okhotnik-B": Russia is creating the killer F-22 and F-35. Americans have nothing to oppose Russian military-technological thought

Over the past decade, Western armies have emphasized their superiority over any enemy through the widespread use of various drones. Mostly heavy reconnaissance and strike. Even in the cinema, footage of surveillance of militants, with their subsequent destruction almost in live with the help of some MQ-1 Predator, have become commonplace. In addition, the command of the US Air Force has begun the final decommissioning of these machines, as well as their reconnaissance modification RQ-1, as already obsolete.

The last flight of the last MQ-1 machine took place on March 9, 2018. However, under contracts with PMCs (but no longer on behalf of the Air Force), Predators will still fly until December this year. But then everything, only the universal reconnaissance and strike MQ-9 Reaper and the heavy Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk weighing 15 tons will remain in service. With the prospect of replacing them with more modern projects that are currently under development.

Against this background, the Russian army looked pale. Strictly speaking, after the collapse of the USSR, it did not produce an overall impression of health, but in August 2008 it became obvious that the crisis had been overcome. True, re-equipment and rearmament mainly concerned the usual, albeit highly improved systems. Whereas the area of ​​drones remained one big blank spot. We simply didn't have them. For geopolitical reasons, the possibility of import purchases was also excluded.

In five years, a critical hole in technical capabilities was closed only in the lightest class - small tactical reconnaissance officers of the company-battalion level (weighing up to fifty kilograms and with a flight range of up to five kilometers). At the moment, the RF Armed Forces deployed 36 unmanned aviation units and subunits, which are armed with about two thousand vehicles of seven types, of which five are the most widespread. In fact, strictly speaking, it is more, since the designs and tactical and technical capabilities of the systems in service " Pear», « Tachyon», « Outpost», « Pomegranate», « Eleron-3SV"closely similar to the most massive Russian army drone" Oralan-10".

But against the background of the image, which is well-established in the mass perception, as loitering high in the sky MQ-9 Reaper hitting a target with a missile somewhere in the Afghan mountains or the Iraqi desert, it all looked pale. A kind of patch in haste. The US Army command was already talking about strategic drones, while we continued to launch "eagles" to look over the wall of a neighboring house.

However, now it turns out that in the past years the Russian army has been engaged not only in "small uniforms". Russian military design bureaus are finishing work on projects that can seriously change not only the tactical, but also the operational alignment. The last two years of confirmation of the existence of new products fell like a cornucopia.

At the MAKS-2017 exhibition, the company " Kronstadt"demonstrated the Orion heavy reconnaissance aircraft weighing five tons, with a wingspan of sixteen meters, an autonomy of 24 hours of continuous flight and an operating altitude of about seven kilometers. The list of its capabilities takes up two pages in small print, from specific and electronic intelligence, to a communications repeater and mobile station for target designation and illumination.And it turns out that in terms of functionality it is much wider than the one removed from service in the United States MQ-1 Predator, and reconnaissance modification MQ-9 Reaper. Despite the fact that Orion also costs 3.3 times cheaper when buying, and almost seven times cheaper in terms of operating costs.

Testing of the reconnaissance version has been completed, and it is expected to enter service this year. In addition, Kronstadt announced that it had entered the final stage of work on the creation of a shock modification of the machine.

At the Victory Parade on May 9, 2018, the Russian army demonstrated an attack drone " Corsair". With its own weight of 200 kilograms, it provides a radius combat use up to 200 kilometers, solving reconnaissance, transport and strike tasks, including against heavy armored vehicles. "Corsair" equipped missile system"Attack" and can be an element of the digital battlefield thanks to the "All-Seeing Eye" and "Combat Space" modules.

Attack drone "Corsair"

In addition, in a video report about a visit by Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev to the Kazan Aviation Plant, among the samples of flight equipment exhibited for demonstration, a prototype of a heavy strike drone flashed " Altair". With a mass of five tons and a wingspan of 28.5 meters, it is capable of flying over a distance of over ten thousand kilometers at operating altitudes of up to 12 kilometers. Autonomy without refueling in the air reaches two days. There is no exact data on the range of airborne weapons yet, but plant representatives talk about "practically the entire range of Russian missiles."

Drone Altair

But the most significant should be considered a leak of information about the current state of work on the prospective heavy percussion apparatus Okhotnik-B, which was rolled out at the end of June this year at the Novosibirsk Aircraft Plant. According to reports, the machine is based on design solutions not only of the latest fighter-bomber already adopted PAK FA(known under the designation Su-57), but also a promising long-range bomber PAK YES, work on which is currently ongoing. Now "Hunter-B" (also known as Object S-70 within the framework of the research project "Hunter" of the Sukhoi Design Bureau) is undergoing ground tests. A flight inspection cycle is planned for 2019. Commissioning is expected by the end of 2020.

And it will be the most advanced and technically advanced strike drone in the world. With a mass of up to 20 tons, it will reach speeds of up to 1000 kilometers per hour and carry a missile and bomb load corresponding to standard fighter-bomber. In addition, unlike the MQ-9 and RQ-4, Okhotnik-B is initially designed for operations in conditions of massive electronic countermeasures and a dense enemy air defense zone. If we talk about the categories of aviation generations popular in the West, the American MQ-9 corresponds to only the 4 ++ generation, while the Russian Okhotnik-B is already a sixth generations. There are no analogues to her yet.

From which we can conclude that in 2019 Russia will reach parity in the capabilities of military unmanned aircraft, and after 2020 it has every chance to surpass NATO armies in drones. Moreover, if the United States has been working on the topic of drones since the beginning of the 80s, and the first RQ-1 took off only in 1994, and even then, out of 70 delivered to the US Air Force by the end of 2002, about forty crashed due to technical reasons, Russia managed to reach the level of machines of the sixth generation in just seven years. Thus, the progress achieved by the defense industry and the Russian Aerospace Forces in the field of unmanned attack drones allows us to look to the future with confidence. Russian aviation on any TVD.

In the view of most non-aviation people, unmanned aerial vehicles are somewhat complicated versions of radio-controlled models of aircraft. In a sense, it is. However, the functions of these devices Lately have become so diverse that it is no longer possible to limit ourselves to this view of them.

The beginning of the unmanned era

If we talk about automatic flying and remotely controlled space systems, then this topic is not new. Another thing is that in the last decade a certain fashion has arisen for them. At its core, the Soviet shuttle Buran, which made a space flight without a crew and landed safely in the now distant 1988, is also a drone. Photos of the surface of Venus and many scientific data on this planet (1965) were also obtained in automatic and telemetric modes. And lunar rovers are quite consistent with the idea of ​​unmanned vehicles. And many other achievements of Soviet science in the space sphere. Where did this fashion come from? Apparently, it was the result of experience in the combat use of such equipment, and he was rich.

And how to use it?

Managing unmanned aerial vehicles is as much a specialty as an ordinary one. An expensive and complex car can easily be smashed to the ground by making a clumsy landing. It can be lost as a result of an unsuccessful maneuver or shelling by the enemy. Like a regular plane or helicopter, you need to try to save the drone and take it out of the danger zone. The risk, of course, is not the same as in the case of a "live" crew, but you should not scatter expensive equipment either. Today, in most countries, instructor and training work is carried out by experienced pilots who have mastered the control of UAVs. They are usually not professional educators and computer technicians, so this approach is unlikely to last for long. The requirements for a “virtual pilot” are different from those that apply to a future cadet upon admission to a flight school. It can be assumed that the competition among applicants for the specialty "UAV operator" will be considerable.

Bitter Ukrainian experience

Without going into the political background of the armed conflict in the eastern regions of Ukraine, one can note the extremely unsuccessful attempts to conduct aerial reconnaissance by An-30 and An-26 aircraft. If the first of them was developed specifically for aerial photography (mainly peaceful), then the second is an exclusively transport modification of the passenger An-24. Both planes were shot down by militia fire. But what about the drones of Ukraine? Why were they not used to obtain information about the deployment of rebel forces? The answer is simple. There is none of them.

Against the backdrop of a permanent financial crisis in the country, the funds necessary to create modern types of weapons were not found. UAVs of Ukraine are at the stage draft designs or the simplest homemade devices. Some of them are assembled from radio-controlled aircraft models purchased at the Pilotage store. The militias do the same. Not so long ago, an alleged downed Russian drone was shown on Ukrainian television. The photo, which shows a small and not the most expensive model (without any damage) with a homemade video camera attached, can hardly serve as an illustration of the aggressive military power of the “northern neighbor”.

Drone

Unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV) - a type of aircraft that is not controlled by a pilot on board.

The historically established abbreviation is UAV; V last years the press also uses the abbreviation BLA.

There are unmanned aerial vehicles:

• unmanned unmanned
• unmanned automatic
• unmanned remotely piloted aircraft ( RPV)

However, most often UAVs are understood as remotely controlled aircraft used for aerial reconnaissance and strikes. The most famous example of a UAV is the American Predator.

Unmanned aerial vehicles are usually divided according to such interrelated parameters as mass, time, range and flight altitude. There are devices of the "micro" class (code name) weighing up to 10 kilograms, a flight time of about 1 hour and a height of up to 1 kilometer, "mini" - weighing up to 50 kilograms, a flight time of several hours and a height of up to 3 - 5 kilometers, medium (" midi") - up to 1,000 kilograms, with a time of 10-12 hours and a height of up to 9-10 kilometers, heavy - with flight altitudes of up to 20 kilometers and a flight time of 24 hours or more.

Story

Design

To determine the coordinates and earth speed, modern UAVs usually use satellite navigation receivers (GLONASS). Attitude and g-angles are determined using gyroscopes and accelerometers. Software usually written in high-level languages ​​such as C, C++, Modula-2, Oberon SA, or Ada95. As hardware as a rule, specialized computers based on PC / 104, QNX, VxWorks are used,

UAVs by country

see also

Notes

Links

• Descriptions of UAV, UAV, UAV.
• Russian "drone" Tu-300 is planned to be modernized
• The program for the creation of strike UAVs will be implemented by RAC "MiG" together with JSC "Klimov"
• uav.su: The latest unmanned aircraft news from around the world.
• zala.aero: Official website of the manufacturer of the UAV "Unmanned Systems" ZALA AERO
• By 2011, the Russian Air Force will receive modern UAVs, including strike
• Analysis of the situation with UAVs in the Russian Federation, Kommersant
• Official website of OJSC "Tupolev", On the development of unmanned aircraft in the Design Bureau
• Unmanned aerial vehicles: advantages. INFOgraphics
• Can a war be won with weapons alone? - experience in the use of UAVs in Afghanistan
• UAVs can leave an aircraft carrier without aircraft, nvo.ng.ru, 2008-07-25
• Robotic small unmanned helicopter Special project UAV "Husky"

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See what "UAV" is in other dictionaries:

Predator reconnaissance and attack UAV of the US Air Force