Drone delivery drones have great uses in high-risk environments

Recently, my country's Double-Tailed Scorpion A drone revealed a "drone" mounted under its wing. Some commentators believe that this "drone" can autonomously perform multiple tasks and play a huge role in extremely dangerous environments.

It is reported that the "Twin-Tailed Scorpion A" adopts a large aspect ratio, double tail struts, and a 20-style aerodynamic layout design. The fuselage is 10 meters long, 3.1 meters high, and has a wingspan of 20 meters. The maximum flight speed is about 300 kilometers per hour, the maximum take-off weight is 2.8 tons, and the maximum hovering time is 36 hours. It is the world's first three-engine large-scale high-end UAV system.

In terms of mission payload, the "Twin-Tailed Scorpion A" is also extremely powerful, and can carry 16 different types of precision-guided munitions or conventional bombs. What is most praised by the outside world is that the "Twin-Tailed Scorpion A" can mount an "unmanned sub-machine" on each side of the wing near the fuselage. It can be considered that the "unmanned sub-machine" is actually a multi-task cruise missile that can perform battlefield reconnaissance, information relay, electronic warfare and even ground strike missions. Therefore, the "Twin-Tailed Scorpion A" can be transformed into an "unmanned aerial mothership" when necessary, serving as a relay platform or command platform for the "unmanned sub-machine", and the "unmanned sub-machine" is the "eyes" and extended "fist" of the "Twin-Tailed Scorpion A".

This design is undoubtedly to cope with the increasingly complex battlefield confrontation environment. Under the current situation, it is difficult for traditional offensive weapons such as manned aircraft and unmanned aircraft to win "alone", and coordinated formation operations have become the solution. However, drones launched from land or ships either cannot keep up with the speed or have a short range, and there are problems such as poor coordination timeliness and high complexity. Therefore, air-launched drones came into being.

Air-launched drones are drones that are mainly mounted on manned or unmanned aerial platforms and launched from the air. They can carry infrared/photoelectric radars, electronic warfare equipment, etc., approach enemy defense areas, and perform early warning reconnaissance, communication relay, electronic warfare, and luring the enemy to open fire. They have the advantages of strong concealment, no casualties, low cost, and flexible deployment. When necessary, air-launched drones can also carry warheads and transform into cruise missiles to perform ground strike missions.

Driven by new combat concepts such as multi-domain warfare, mosaic warfare and distributed warfare, the United States has successively carried out research on a number of air-launched drone projects, including the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft Project, the Unmanned Targeting Aviation System, the Gray Eagle UAV Air Launch Effect, the Charge X UAV Project, and the Quail UAV Cluster Project.

Among the many air-launched drone projects, the Gray Eagle UAV air launch effect is the only "drone" project that is explicitly designed for drone development. The project uses the extended-range MQ-1C Gray Eagle as the mother aircraft, and carries, launches and controls multiple "drone" aircraft to perform intelligence, target indication, communication, interference, decoy and other combat missions. According to the plan, the "Gray Eagle" can carry 12 to 18 "drone" aircraft, and will also test air recovery skills in the future. At present, the U.S. Army is testing two large and small "drone" aircraft, namely the 10-kilogram "Altius"-600 and the 90-kilogram "Kitty Hawk". In the summer of 2020, the "Gray Eagle" completed the air launch and control of two "Altius"-600 flight demonstrations. In December 2022, the "Gray Eagle" completed the air launch test of the "Kitty Hawk".

In fact, in order to expand the multi-domain launch and carrying capabilities of drones, countries have been exploring the test of drone-mounted and air-launched "drone sub-drones". In September 2020, the US MQ-9 armed drone completed a test flight carrying the "Sparrowhawk". In March, the XQ-58A stealth drone successfully launched the "Altius"-600 from its internal bomb bay. In August, the Jump 20 vertical take-off and landing fixed-wing drone carried out a demonstration and verification of the air-launched Switchblade-300 cruise missile. The Predator drone flew for the first time with the Coyote unmanned attack aircraft.

In June this year, Germany released a video of the Comrades UAV carrying cruise missiles to perform combat missions. According to reports, the drone can carry up to 8 cruise missiles, which can break through most of the current air defense systems. The cruise missiles and "unmanned sub-drones" basically only differ in functional payload.

In addition, Russia's Lightning Swarm UAV can also be carried on large UAVs. The latest US Army "Force Design 2030" document clearly states that it will develop a new type of long-range cruise missile to replace the US Army's main ground strike weapon "Hellfire".

Looking at the above projects, it is not difficult to find that the huge military potential of drones carrying and launching "drone sub-drones" is attracting the attention of major drone-developing countries in the world. Countries are starting from two aspects: one is to actively expand their multi-platform, multi-domain carrying and launching capabilities based on existing mature models, the most typical representative of which is the US "Switchblade" series; the other is new research and development, represented by the US air launch effect project.

However, no matter which research and development approach is adopted, the technical difficulties that need to be solved are similar: compact folding deployment mechanism design, high lift-to-drag ratio aerodynamic layout, compatible launch from multiple mother aircraft platforms, flight control under complex airflow disturbances, and manned/unmanned cluster collaborative control, etc., ultimately meeting the requirements of aerial unmanned platform transportation and delivery, as well as diverse mission requirements such as long-flight reconnaissance, cluster penetration, and rapid strikes.

"Equal emphasis on quality and quantity" is the practical need for countries to develop aviation equipment. Compared with manned aircraft, drones are more suitable for performing tasks in dangerous and harsh environments, and have lower life cycle costs. With the rapid development of technologies such as artificial intelligence and communication networking, the combat capability of drones has been significantly improved, and the types of tasks have become increasingly diverse. The new combat mode of drone delivery will further rewrite the style of unmanned warfare, which deserves our high attention. (Author: Yang Huijun, review expert: Jiang Fan, deputy director of the Science and Technology Committee of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation)