Russian expert with suggestions for creating “hunters” UAV“
In a commentary published by Topcor.ru on June 1, Russian expert Sergey Marzhetsky noted that the propeller aircraft EMB 314 Super Tucano (also known as ALX or A-29) was developed by the US and Brazil. as a light fighter with low acquisition and maintenance costs.
Mr. Marzhetsky also suggested that the Russian Army can rely on the above example to “fill in the void” about unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) against current and future competitors by “something capable of reconnaissance, air support and especially the ability to ‘hunt’ UAVs”.
In particular, this expert also emphasized that “after the Afghanistan war (1979-1989), the construction of the Yak-52B light attack aircraft was carried out by the Soviet Union and two hardpoints with UB-32 blocks (cluster of 32 rocket launchers 57 mm) were installed. “.
At the end of the article Mr. Marzhetsky concluded that “If the Yak-52s are equipped with modern equipment and weapons – we (Russia) can have a good, reliable light attack with reasonable production and maintenance costs for many people. different types of tasks”.
The Yak-52B with 2 clusters of UB-32 launchers. It is known that about 1,800 Yak-52s have been produced by the Soviet Union and Russia and are in the equipment of the air forces of many countries around the world.
Why produce light attack aircraft when there is a UAV attack?
It is known that based on a large number of “stoned” comments from readers of Russia (and former Soviet countries) after the article was published a few days after the article was published, Topwar.ru published the second article of Mr. further clarification on the above topic.
In the article, the Russian expert responded to readers’ comments as follows:
“First, I would like to respond to the comments with the spirit of ‘we have good attack UAVs (UCAVs), so why produce new weapons”.
Dear friends (readers), the problem is that our country (Russia) has just entered and tried to catch up with the UAV production race. For example, the Orlan-10 reconnaissance UAVs are assembled entirely from foreign civilian components because there is no facility to manufacture them.
Russian soldiers install and deploy Orlan-10 UAV to prepare for launch.
The UCAV Altius-U also only completed its tests in 2021 and the Russian Ministry of Defense signed an agreement on the start of mass production – that is, when it will actually be equipped is still unclear. .
The heavy UCAV S-70 Okhotnik-B is promised to begin deliveries no earlier than 2023. Mass production of the UCAV Orion (under the Inokhodets program) at the plant built by the manufacturer Kronstadt last year has also just begun.
Why do we need to be mindful of all that? Saying “we have good UCAVs” is valid only when they are equipped by the military in numbers in the tens and preferably hundreds.
Although it appears that the Russian armed forces possess the UCAV as a mass weapon, this is not the case.
Orion UAV destroyed Ukrainian strongholds and armored vehicles in March 2022 (Source: Russian Defense Ministry).
Meanwhile, our adversaries are all considered to really possess UCAV with the support from the technological strength and the huge industrial-military complexes of the West.
The confrontation between UAVs (Western) and air defense systems (Russia) has highlighted many serious problems in the latter.
The Russian military has artillery systems – short-range air defense missiles Tor-M1, Tor-E2, Buk-M2E, Buk-MZ and Pantsir-S1 capable of shooting down UAVs, but they also have their own disadvantages, each found in Syria.
The first is the high cost of firing and the second is the difficulty of detecting small UAVs – Drones have a mass of less than 25 kg, a flight altitude of up to 3 km and a range of up to 40 km. If they form large swarms, they are capable of overloading even the best air defense systems.
Pantsir-S1 short-range air defense missile – artillery complex.
The biggest danger to us is coming from Drones – which help the enemy to indicate targets for artillery.
And the problem of the Russian air defense system has also revealed itself with the appearance of “ammunition loitering” (suicide UAV) – namely the US-made Switchblade. The swarm attack of such “disposable” UAVs has the potential to cause great trouble.
What conclusions do these issues bring?
Obviously in the future there will only be more and more UAVs on the battlefield and they will get smaller and “smarter”. And “prevention” with cheap options is more effective than “cure” with expensive treatments.
“Air defense umbrella” while reliable will still not be able to cover everyone and so it is better to shoot down UAVs when they are in the air and at a distance – this requires force air Force. But will have to shoot the UAV with what?
Of course, jet fighters can be used against relatively slow-moving UAVs, but there are more affordable solutions like the Yak-52B.
The EMB-314 Super Tucano has an exceptionally low cost and a top speed of 593 km/h. The Yak-52B has a more modest performance (top speed is 272 km/h) but there aren’t any UAVs that can escape them – the UCAV Bayraktar TB2 for example has a top speed of 220 km/h.
The weight of weapons that 1 EMB-314 Super Tucano can carry is up to 1.5 tons.
It would be a simple, easy-to-fly, and cheap aircraft tasked with air-to-air patrol and air defense, shooting down enemy UAVs with machine guns or air-to-air missiles.
In the future, we may consider using other light attack aircraft.
With a crew of two, this attack can conduct reconnaissance and control other UAVs – for example, indicating targets for Orion UCAVs.
Together, the light attack and UCAV can wipe enemy UAVs from the sky and ensure the dominance of Russian UAVs in the air.
The idea of creating a UCAV with air combat capabilities is exciting, but it will have a lot of technical problems with the details and complex algorithms with artificial intelligence (AI) and a propeller plane. simple and cheap can really solve those problems.
At the end of May 2022, RIA Novosti quoted a source in the Russian defense industry as saying that a test of firing on a ground target of the UCAV S-70 Okhotnik-B (Hunter-B) was successful.
The source also revealed that the guided missile of unknown type used in the test was one of the weapons developed specifically for the Su-57 5th generation stealth fighter.
The source added that after a series of successful launches, “the weapon (S-70B Okhotnik) can effectively attack small camouflaged targets with missiles at all times and in all conditions.” weather”.
It should be noted that in January 2021, UCAV Okhotnik tested for the first time an attack with an unguided bomb.
Russia’s heavy UCAV S-70 -Okhotnik in the test of hitting a target with an unguided bomb weighing 500 kg (Source: Russia 1).
at Blogtuan.info – Source: Soha.vn – Read the original article here
