Before the official opening of the 2022 Zhuhai Air Show, a large amount of exhibit information had been widely reported through various media. Among them, key equipment such as J-20, J-16, oil transport-20, anti-drone equipment, Hongqi-9BE foreign trade air defense missiles, etc., are naturally the focus of the report. As for such a large-scale event that concentrated on displaying my country's active equipment and foreign trade equipment, the famous foreign military website "War Zone", seems not very interested in the large number of weapons and equipment exposed at the Zhuhai Air Show. Even the J-20 with a large number and the first-time debut of the oil-20 failed to arouse their desire to report. But unexpectedly, on November 6, they published an analysis report on the website of the "certain type" exhibits of this Zhuhai Air Show. So what is special about this exhibit that can be particularly popular with foreigners?
, an exhibit that has been paid attention to by famous foreign military websites, is the "light high-motor vehicle-mounted bee-swarm weapon system" developed by China Weapon Equipment Group . The car uses the "Martial Warrior" as the carrier motor chassis. On the premise that the front body can still be carried by people, the rear body has been changed to the "swarm transmitter" carrying mechanism. Among the 18 launch units of the "swarm launcher", 18 intelligent folding fixed-wing cruise missiles are loaded. In fact, this "light high-motor vehicle-mounted bee swarm weapon system" appeared in the promotional video of China Electronics Technology's "land-air-air collaborative fixed-wing drone 'bee swarm'" as early as 2020, but the "bee swarm launcher" at the rear at that time was even more "brutally": 48 fixed-wing cruise missiles can be launched at one time to form a "bee swarm" for reconnaissance and attack!
Then why after two years of development, after the "light high-motor vehicle bee-on-swarm weapon system" first appeared on the Zhuhai Air Show, the number of cruise missiles suddenly shrank from 48 to just 18? The "swarm launcher" with 48 launch tubes unveiled in 2020 is actually a small diameter for each launch tube. Therefore, although 48 cruise missiles can be loaded at a time, the size of the missile is only similar to the CH-901 cruise missile , so the charge is not much and the single-body damages less, so it is not suitable for fighting against armored vehicles or solid fortifications. So when the Zhuhai Air Show was first launched to seek potential customers, the Weapon Equipment Group came up with this new model that has been improved and upgraded, reduced launchers but increased the power of cruise missiles.
In fact, since the United States began to develop low-cost independent attack ammunition in 1994, patrol missiles have attracted widespread attention in the fields of world ammunition and guided weapons. The US military has begun to lead the development of patrol missiles carried by various platforms in this field. Since the 21st century, cruise missiles have had corresponding models ranging from relatively long-range strikes and fire support to extremely short-range combat systems suitable for individual combat. The most familiar model of cruise missiles in the world is undoubtedly the US "Switchblade" cruise missile that has been frequently unveiled in the recent Russian-Ukrainian conflict. However, since the United States provided Ukraine with the small cruise missiles of "Switchblade-300" type, the damage power is extremely limited and it cannot destroy the Russian army's targets with strong protection, the United States later gave a small number of large cruise missiles of "Switchblade-600" that could be equipped with anti-armored warheads. The size of the "Switchblade-600" is visually estimated to be similar to the cruise missiles loaded by the "Vehicle Swarm Weapon System" exhibited this time.
The "high-motor vehicle-mounted swarm transmitter" that we exhibited this time has the ability to perform diversified tasks such as aerial reconnaissance, regional blockade, precise strike, cluster strike, and damage assessment. It also has information relay function and can provide real-time control mode of human in the circuit through the 360-degree photoelectric turret on the head of the cruise missile. It can also perform precise formation and formation transformation between multiple cruise missiles, and can intelligently divide attack areas to avoid wasting caused by multiple cruise missiles hitting one target. Of course, after the volume of the cruise missile increases, it also has the ability to replace the "anti-armored warhead" and other multi-functional strikes.
The "light high-motor vehicle bee-on-swarm weapon system" debuted at the Zhuhai Air Show has not been specifically introduced yet, but it is judged from the 48-tube launcher that appeared at the 2020 display to the current 18-tube launcher, it may have modular replacement capabilities. That is, according to the strength and distance of the target, you can flexibly replace the "bee swarm" cruise missile launchers with different launch tubes to meet the needs of multiple types of attacks. There may even be a "play" of mixed installation of different types of launchers. After all, General Dynamics Land Systems of the United States has implemented the installation of 26 large "switchblade-600" launchers and 24 small "switchblade-300" launchers on the "TRX cruise missile integrated system" exhibited in 2020.
So after the above introduction, we can understand why the "war zone" website specifically reports on the "light high-motor vehicle bee-on-swarm weapon system"! This is not only because we already have similar performance as the same equipment as the United States in technology, but also because our weapons and equipment can keep up with the development and changes of the world. The Russian-Ukrainian conflict proved that the power of the "Switchblade-300" was insufficient, and our exhibits were replaced with a launch module similar to the large "Switchblade-600" - this proves that China also sees the importance of the "car-on bee swarm" system and has launched products with almost the same performance as American arms dealers!
You should know that it is important to attach importance to this kind of cruise missile that relies on the flexibility of light and high motor vehicles and is equipped with low cost, high cost-effectiveness, and strong stealth ability. It is undoubtedly a maneuverable strike force that cannot be ignored on the battlefield in the future. Especially this new tactic that even the US military has just explored has seen the sale of finished equipment made with similar concepts in China almost simultaneously - can this impact be small? Therefore, the move to give up the attention to "old equipment" such as the J-20 and specifically report on this new equipment is not so puzzling for a more professional foreign military website!
