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AV500 Unmanned Helicopter

The AV-500, dubbed as copycat of the US-made Fire-scout UAV, was developed and produced at the AVIC Helicopter Research and Development Institute CHRDI in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province. The AV500 can be equipped with laser-guided missiles and machine guns besides electro-optical pods for reconnaissance. It has a maximum take-off weight (MTOW) is 500kg with a payload of 190kg. In comparison, the Northrop Grumman Fire Scout UAV is a much bigger platform with a MTOW of 2721kg, payload of 227kg,

Unmanned helicopters are controlled by radio remote control or autonomously controlled. They can perform tasks that exceed the physiological limits of pilots or have a higher risk factor. Through the integration of military and civilian development, unmanned helicopters have their unique advantages in national defense and national economic construction It has wide application prospects in other aspects. Although China's drones started late, they have developed at a relatively fast rate. At present, China has become a major country for the development and production of drones. With the development of artificial intelligence technology, China's civil unmanned aerial vehicles are expected to achieve large-scale production and wide application in a period of time in the future.

AV500 is a 500 kg unmanned helicopter with a maximum horizontal flight speed of 170 km / h, a maximum cruising speed of 120 km / h, a maximum battery life of up to 8 hours, and a control radius of 200 km. It can be applied to civil fields such as maritime supervision, environmental monitoring, search and rescue, agricultural and forestry protection, pipeline patrol, geological survey, aerial photography, etc.

In 2015, the AV500 drone carried out a plateau test flight in the Alxa region of Inner Mongolia to verify the excellent plateau flight quality. Previously, it has been statically displayed at many important domestic airshows such as the Tianjin International Direct Expo, and has received extensive attention.

On 27 April 2016, on the surface of Nan'ao Island, 48 kilometers away from Shantou City, Guangdong Province, the AV500 unmanned helicopter developed by AVIC showed good flight performance after 45 minutes of flight on the surface of a 7-level gust. This is the first time that an AV500 unmanned helicopter has carried out a sea test flight. Its success has created conditions for accelerating unmanned helicopters to undertake maritime operations and maritime operations.

Towards high wind, AV500 had a 45 minutes testing flight, with a good and satisfied performance. It marked the opening of unmanned helicopters in the scope of sea area operations. Relative to flying on land, helicopters are more difficult than flying on land due to meteorological reasons. The test flight of the AV500 UAV in Nanao Island lasted 2 days. The demonstration project was divided into three phases. The first phase was to carry out a data link sea distance test to verify the effective operating distance and information of the unmanned helicopter's measurement and control link in the marine environment. Transmission quality; the second stage is to conduct an adaptability test in the near field to check the unmanned helicopter's on-board system operation, take-off and landing capabilities, and flight adaptability at the seaside site; the third stage is to carry out preset flight routes for typical use scenarios. This scenario assumes an unmanned helicopter hovering and taking off at a seaside site to carry out a patrol mission. After reaching the mission area, it conducts a low-altitude flight around the target ship, and monitors and identifies the sea surface ship through the mounted photoelectric pod.

There is a helicopter take-off and landing platform on the 054A frigate, and it is feasible to take off and land large unmanned helicopters. AVIC UAV of AVIC has been tested at sea. The helicopter's flight speed and endurance are not as good as the fixed wing, but the data shows that it also has a cruising speed of 120km / h and an endurance of 6-7 hours. It also has an integrated version of inspection and fighting, and successfully conducted target shooting experiments.

2017 was the harvest year for AV500 unmanned helicopters. In March, AV500 successfully completed a 7-day "unmanned helicopter aviation emergency mapping system" demonstration flight in Baoding, Hebei. In November, it successfully completed the test flight of Xiahe and Golmud Plateau. In December, it successfully won its first commercial flight. At the same time, it also won the first prize of the second Tiangong Cup Industrial Design Competition in Jiangxi Province, becoming the leader in the domestic drone industry.

All of the military drones China has offered to the international market have been fixed-wing models, making the AV500W the first Chinese unmanned military helicopter available in that market, experts were quoted as saying. Jiang Taiyu, one of the chief designers of AV500W, said the aircraft fired weapons during flight tests in August 2017. The 7.2-meter-long aircraft has a maximum take-off weight of 450 kilogramms, a maximum speed of 170 kilometers per hour, and a flight ceiling of 4,000 meters, The helicopter is capable of carrying 120 kilogrammes of weapons and equipment. Its reconnaissance version can remain aloft for eight hours. "The helicopter is able to take off and land on almost any landform including plateaus and canyons. It can operate in cold and tropical environments. It will be useful in border patrols, counterterrorism operations and low-intensity conflicts because it can carry out very-low-altitude penetration and keep hovering for a while," he said.

In test on November 18, 2017, the AV500 successfully completed its missile-armed flight and shooting test at a base in Golmud in northwest China’s Qinghai Province. In the same year, the AV500 broke the altitude record for domestically developed helicopter drones by achieving an altitude of 5,006 metres while undergoing testing in China's North western province of Gansu. The unmanned chopper conducted deep penetration operations during a combat exercise conducted by Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) in September 2018. The AV500 simulated conducting defense penetration operations at mid and low altitudes. It spanned a distance of 180 kilometers with all parameters registered as normal in about two hours.

AV500 has excellent task completion ability. On December 7, 2017, AV500, a "good bird", won the first place in a commercial flight in a sea area of Dalian, and its performance was once again verified. Unmanned aerial vehicles fulfill the customer's needs mainly through the equipment carried by the unmanned aerial vehicles. The vibration level directly affects the efficiency of the equipment. It is particularly important to reduce the vibration level of unmanned helicopters. In order to tackle vibration level control, the AV500 scientific research team conducted fluid analysis and wind tunnel blowing tests to verify the vibration level of the unmanned helicopter and finally determine the overall aerodynamic shape; in order to reduce vibration from the source, the rotor design of the AV500 also has a unique design. After the adjustment, it was found that AV500 reached the lowest value of the same level of UAV vibration level in China. AV500 also has good flight performance, of which the flight control level is the domestic leading level, reaching the level 2 to 3 in the autonomous flight control level defined by the US military, which is equivalent to the current technical level of foreign unmanned helicopters.

Aviation Industry Corp of China (AVIC) put on display its first unmanned combat helicopter AV500W for foreign buyers in a bid to enlarge scope to market its military drones abroad. AVIC marked the first big sales order for its AV500 helicopter UAV in October 2019. A preliminary sales contract for 10 AV500 helicopter UAVs was signed with the Wuhan Aviation Industry UAV Service (WAIUS) during the China Heli-Expo at Tianjin on October 10, AVIC announced. The value of contract was not known. These UAV will be used in the fields of oil and gas, ocean, power grid, forest protection, security and counter-terrorism, AVIC said. The AV500 had made rapid progress from development to sales. It completed its first night operation only in June this year sending back clear infrared images of its target vessel while flying some 114 kms in saline and humid conditions over the South China Sea.

An armed AV500W typically carries four air-to-ground missiles, which use radar homing technology for guidance. Each missile weighs 8 kilogrammes and can hit a target 5 kilometres away, the report quoted AVIC officials as saying. It also can carry bombs or a machine-gun pod.

"War Wolf" unmanned helicopter (AV500W). The maximum take-off weight of "War Wolf" in the plain area is 500 kg, and the maximum take-off weight in the plateau area of ??4,300 meters is 430 kg. It can mount small laser-guided missiles or machine guns. The maximum level flight speed reaches 170 kilometers per hour and the endurance time is 4 hour.

The "War Wolf" plateau has good performance, strong maneuverability, easy deployment, good reconnaissance and rapid response capabilities, and can accurately strike enemy light vehicles, personnel and other ground targets. It is especially suitable for use in the complex terrain environment of the plateau. Future warfare, anti-terrorism and stability maintenance, anti-drug and anti-smuggling fields have broad application value.

With the rapid development of unmanned equipment, the combat mode of unmanned corps that organizes a large number of unmanned equipment in clusters or combines unmanned equipment and manned equipment for coordinated operations has gradually become a key consideration for the military of various countries. At present, the unmanned combat equipment that has been used in actual combat is mainly UAV and ground unmanned equipment. It can be seen that the research on land/air unmanned combat equipment is relatively in-depth in various countries.