text/Xiong Jie
A few days ago, the South Korean army was ruthlessly played by several drones from the north, and even used flocks of birds as drones to intercept. But then China Electronics Technology Co., Ltd. released a video of "Full Process Test of Drone Swarm Mission" to show the outside world what "real drone warfare" is. The equipment used in the
test is the " land-air collaborative fixed-wing UAV system " that was unveiled at this year's Zhuhai Air Show. It was independently developed by China Electronics Technology and its launch vehicle can launch 48 small fixed-wing UAVs at one time.
(Land-Air Collaborative Fixed-wing UAV System)
After launch, these UAVs began to work fully automatically : automatic assignment of tasks, automatic networking, automatic path finding, automatic detection and avoidance of obstacles, automatic attack, all actions are intelligent and automated, and do not require human intervention.
(UAVs work autonomously)
Obviously, they have autonomous situational awareness , intelligence fusion, target allocation, command and control, adaptive collaboration, intelligent decision-making and other capabilities. They can be independently dynamically compiled according to changes in combat tasks and battlefield situations, and to a certain extent, they can adapt to complex, strong confrontation, and high uncertainty battlefield environments.
Although these drones are small in size and cannot carry heavy warheads, " a hero cannot stand against a large number of people ", the meaning of the drone swarm is to use low-cost small drones to carry out saturation attacks, which also makes them more like a flock of birds on the radar , making it impossible for the enemy to distinguish. And if they become extremely "smart", this will be a nightmare for any air defense system .
(China's drone swarm)
And such highly intelligent swarm tactics show that China has leading advantages in artificial intelligence , big data, network technology and many other technologies.
Want to make drones "smart"? This requirement seems simple, but it is quite complicated to implement, and the technical difficulty is quite high. For example, the performances of drones that often see changing patterns in the air are not actually more intelligent. Instead, they are programmed in advance and the route is planned, and the drone only needs to follow the program.
(Drone performance is not considered "swarm intelligence")
However, Dianke's experiments have shown us that Chinese drones already have high intelligence and autonomy, and their performance is significantly better than similar foreign products . Although we do not yet know whether difficulties such as "facing strong electromagnetic interference " have been overcome, the development of China's drone swarms is obviously moving steadily towards the established goal.
(UAVs aided by the United States to Ukraine)
Moreover, this can also effectively avoid adversary intrusion and control of drones to a certain extent.
At present, communication between command posts and drones, manned drones and drones, and drones and drones can basically only be through wireless means, and wireless communication is naturally open, which gives opponents the opportunity to invade.
However, a drone with autonomous intelligence can minimize communication with the outside world after launch, which can also reduce the possibility of the drone being invaded and controlled to a certain extent.
(Ukrainian soldiers control drones)
Of course, after seeing such a test, the most shocked person about was American .
Some US military experts said that although the US military also attaches great importance to the application of drone swarm tactics and is at the forefront of the world in drone technology, if we only look at this test, there seems to be a certain gap between US military drones and China in terms of automation and intelligence.
This also shows that China’s development ideas for the drone system are indeed on the right track.
Some experts lamented that China's drones are indeed at the top level in the world in terms of technology, navigation, artificial intelligence, communication technology, etc. The future war model may develop rapidly in a way and at a speed that is difficult for the United States to predict. This is also a dangerous signal for the Taiwan Strait area that the United States is trying its best to stir up.
(U.S. soldiers control drones)
Russia used the "Shahid-136" to slowly attack targets in Ukraine, but it caused earth-shaking changes in the battlefield situation. But their model of fiddling with joysticks and controlling drones like a model airplane is obviously outdated. China’s drone swarms are the new direction of future warfare.
