From the video commemorating the 10th anniversary of the J-20 maiden flight of , the J-20 two-seater version made its debut. By the 2021 Zhuhai Air Show, the J-20S two-seater model appeared on the air show display board, triggering domestic and foreign concerns about the J-20's potential to compete with unmanned aerial vehicles. Discussions about collaborative operations between aircraft, and later the J-20S two-seater UAV mother aircraft has completed the manufacturing of a yellow-skinned prototype and has been exposed many times as being tested. China's military industry has undoubtedly achieved great results in the research and practice of collaborative operations between fifth-generation aircraft and drones, and is far ahead of other countries in the world. This will inevitably cause sourness in the U.S. military industry. On July 15, the U.S. media "1945" published an article stating that the U.S. Lockheed Martin Skunk Works has now begun preparations for the collaboration of the F-35 stealth fighter and drones. Combat research to promote the U.S. Air Force to quickly enter the era of unmanned air combat and cope with the rapid rise of the Chinese and Russian air forces.
The US 1945 website reported
Brent Eastwood, the author of the article, said that in the new concept of Skunk Works , the future unmanned coordination capabilities of the F-35 stealth fighter will be developed from scratch to significantly improved. It is capable of cooperating with 4 unmanned fighter aircraft at the same time. Moreover, in combat operations, the drones that cooperate with F-35 in the future will be more intelligent and can automatically form a formation to protect the safety of the core manned fighter F-35. And the UAVs participating in coordinated operations will have the characteristics of rapid production, rapid replenishment and low cost to ensure that they can be used in large-scale combination with the F-35 stealth fighter. If the above concept can be realized, American expert Brent Eastwood It is believed that this will greatly enhance the effectiveness of US distributed operations in dealing with China and Russia.
The Chinese Air Force is far ahead in unmanned collaborative technology. The United States has begun to touch China to cross the river, accelerating the promotion of fifth-generation aircraft to cooperate with UAVs
MQ-4 high-altitude reconnaissance drones
Fifth-generation aircraft and UAVs to cooperate with each other. This time it is obviously the United States. Crossing the river with China. For a long time, affected by local conflicts such as the Cold War, the post-Iraq War, and the Afghanistan War, the U.S. Air Force has a very traditional concept of using drones, which is to focus on reconnaissance and strikes. The famous MQ-9 Reaper unmanned attack aircraft and MQ-4 high-altitude reconnaissance drones are all unilaterally crushed by the military strength of the United States. The drones only need to provide auxiliary operations to avoid casualties and help other arms in miscellaneous investigations, or It was born in a low-intensity war environment to replace manned fighter planes in bombing. Of course, while bullying third world countries through drones in the Middle East, the United States has also been exploring other applications of drones.
First of all, it uses the reconnaissance characteristics of drones to deploy them forward to perform close reconnaissance missions to provide early warning of incoming ballistic missiles to the United States. In September last year, the U.S. Air Force dispatched RS-135 reconnaissance Aircraft, MQ-4 unmanned reconnaissance aircraft and E-8 battlefield surveillance aircraft are conducting reconnaissance activities in the surrounding areas of our country to test the U.S. Air Force’s ballistic missile early warning capabilities. However, due to the vastness and depth of our country, the actual effect of the United States' envisioned use of drones to warn China of ballistic missile launches is not good, and is far inferior to the THAAD anti-missile system in South Korea, which has a detection range of up to 2,000 kilometers. Therefore, in recent years, the United States has dispatched MQ-4 to carry out close reconnaissance activities around our country. The most important thing is to flex its muscles and show its presence.
Secondly, it is the collaborative operations between drones and other combat systems. It is not only the collaboration between manned and unmanned aircraft systems, but the United States has also envisioned networked collaborative operations between cross-arms and cross-weapon platforms. The distributed combat concept of early warning aircraft + F-35 + drones being developed by the US Air Force to cooperate with each other is one of the specific embodiments of the US manned-unmanned system collaborative combat concept. However, due to the fact that in recent years, the United States' development of unmanned system technology has hit a wall everywhere, the most critical development of unmanned combat aircraft and UAV swarm technology have been delayed in its application.
Attack 11 UAV
No Detection-8 UAV
Especially compared to the Attack 11 Attack UAV and No Detection-8 high-speed UAV exhibited at China’s 2019 National Day Parade, and the 2021 Zhuhai Air Show The unveiled FH-97 high-speed surveillance drone and Golden Eagle 150B drone swarm system, the XQ-58 attack drone that the United States has delayed for 7 years and has not yet entered service, and the drone swarm that will not be completed until 2022 Technical testing, the current status of the United States' related technical achievements in unmanned coordinated operations, the gap is too obvious. Especially now that the J-20 two-seater yellow leather aircraft has been offline, and even Russian Air Force Su-57 and Hunter UAV have completed coordinated flights, if we only rely on ordinary domestic military manufacturers in the United States, the U.S. Air Force It may never be able to catch up with the progress of manned-drone cooperative operations between the Chinese and Russian air forces.
This is why Lockheed Martin suddenly activated Skunk Works and is now preparing to concentrate on investing funds and technical personnel to promote the coordinated operations of F-35 and drones. After all, if the U.S. Air Force does not act quickly, then, with the F-35's slow software upgrade speed and the delay in new drones entering service, the U.S. Air Force may inevitably be in this revolution in the next decade. In the current wave of unmanned air combat, it fell behind the Chinese and Russian air forces and lost its air superiority.
There are also two problems with the Chinese Air Force's unmanned coordination. Duplication of development and the delay in finalizing the J-20 wingman.
FH-97 UAV
The United States has resorted to skunk factory to accelerate the development of UAV coordinated operations. China should also continue Consolidate existing advantages and ensure that we will continue to lead in the transformation of unmanned air combat in the next 10 years. At present, although our country is showing a flourishing trend in the development of drones, drone swarms and drone collaboration technology have also been widely used in the military and civilian fields, however, it is moving towards the era of unmanned aerial combat. , China’s military industry also has some problems that need to be solved. First, although domestic UAVs are rich in types and have excellent performance, there are some models with similar positioning and repeatability that need to be eliminated. For example, at the Zhuhai Air Show, the Skyhawk stealth UAV with a similar body shape to the Attack-11 aircraft, as well as the Phenom-97 at the Zhuhai Air Show, have the potential to be converted into unmanned combat aircraft.
Dark Sword UAV
However, the development work of Shenfei Dark Sword unmanned attack aircraft is still ongoing in recent years, as well as the self-use version of the Pterosaur series UAV and the self-use version of the Rainbow series UAV, In terms of positioning performance, there are also a lot of similarities. In modern warfare, drones are typical consumable equipment. In the future, the era of unmanned air combat is approaching, and the consumable properties of drones will only become more obvious. In this case, multiple military industrial enterprises will carry out several operations at the same time. The development, equipment and improvement of ten UAVs is a complete waste of resources. According to the purpose positioning and combat capability load level, domestic UAVs can reduce the models to 10 to 20 categories, and at a lower cost, in The Air Force realizes large-scale equipment, rapid production and parts replacement, repair and supplementation even during wartime.
In addition to the need to avoid duplication of development in the UAV development industry, the Chinese Air Force's manned-UAV collaborative operations also face a problem, which is the current lack of dedicated unmanned combat attack aircraft that focus on air combat. At present, China's aerospace industry has three combat aircraft with the potential of unmanned combat attack aircraft, namely the Wuzhen-8 that is already in service, the Shenfei Dark Sword that is being developed with a canard layout, and the recent Zhuhai Air Show The Phenom-97 UAV, which may have completed development work, was unveiled on the Internet. Compared with the subsonic UAV Attack-11 and Skyhawk , which have obvious stealth bomber attributes, the three UAVs all adopt the high-speed aerodynamic layout . It can follow the J-20 stealth fighter , which is famous for its supersonic cruise , to conduct coordinated unmanned air combat.
J-20 fighter jets fight drones
However, the Wuji-8, which has been clearly put into service, uses the rocket engine , and coupled with its high-altitude and high-speed design, it is obviously difficult to adapt to the J-20.Although Shenfei's Dark Sword UAV adopts a canard design layout, which is both high-speed and maneuverable, its aerodynamic layout and design have become more complex, and the production cost is not expected to be low. Most importantly, from recent Judging from the progress of several exposures, the equipment production of Dark Sword UAVs will still take some time. Taking into account Shenyang Aircraft's perennially sluggish military aircraft production, Chengdu Aircraft has completed the production of 300 J-20s. Can Shenyang Aircraft Company complete the production of at least 600 J-20s? The production of Dark Sword drones is probably a problem. The Phenom-97 UAV has a simple design and its aerodynamic layout has been verified in advance by the American XQ-58. In addition, it has already appeared at the Zhuhai Air Show and may have completed production. It is undoubtedly the best drone that the J-20 can quickly adapt to in the short term. Best unmanned fighter aircraft . However, the specific follow-up situation still needs to be carefully considered by the Chinese Air Force in the future, so please wait and see.
