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Warrior Eagle / Zhan-Ying

The 7th Zhuhai International Air Show in 2008 featured a model of an unmanned attack aircraft named "Warhawk" placed in the center of the UAV booth. The "Warhawk" has a silver body and the air intake is placed on the back. It is obviously different from other fighters in that its wings stretch forward, just like the "Dapeng spreads its wings". Military observers analyze that the maneuverability of this fighter may not be as good as the "Dark Sword". "But the stealth performance is better, and it can also carry missiles and a large amount of ammunition for short-range bombing.

According to the text description of this fighter by AVIC, the "Warhawk" is an unmanned attack aircraft, which mainly performs tasks such as suppressing/destroying air defenses, deep strikes, battlefield reconnaissance in high-threat areas, and time-sensitive target strikes. Therefore, the design concept of the "Warhawk" is completely different from the "dark sword" of covert operations, and is more offensive. This shows that China's unmanned fighters have dared to compete with developed countries in technology.

The "Warhawk" adopts forward-swept wings and advanced lift-body flying wing layout. The air intake and engine nozzles installed on the back of the fuselage have adopted low-signal measures. The technical standards for stealth performance are basically the same as that of the American X-47B. "Warhawk" adopts a forward-swept wing layout, which is relatively rare in UAVs. This design can not only achieve high-speed performance similar to that of a backward-swept wing, but the trailing edge of the forward-swept wing can also be integrated with the rear fuselage. Reduce the radar reflection area. Another advantage of using forward-swept wing is that the wing can be set behind the fuselage. The weight and aerodynamic force of the outer wing can also balance the aerodynamic effect of the front fuselage.

Compared with the conventional forward-swept wing layout, it can effectively reduce the length and overall structure of the fuselage. The size of the aircraft can be reduced before ensuring flight performance and basic mission load, reducing the size and cost of the aircraft. The tactical function of the "Warhawk" is to act as a "door hammer" that breaks through the air defense network, relying on stealth performance and airborne weapons to destroy important nodes on the air defense network at a fixed point, and to defend the enemy's air before other aviation combat forces penetrate the defense. The network opens the gap and completes the reconnaissance mission. This is very close to the famous F-117 in the United States. The difference is that the pilot is replaced by a ground controller and an automatic control system.

The stealth and large-scale multi-functionalization of unmanned attack aircraft can indeed be close to conventional attack aircraft in performance, but modern attack aircraft need to complete battlefield support, deep precision strikes, reconnaissance and self-defense air defense tasks, which are their level of automation and equipment The level of perfection is very demanding. UAVs and command aircraft are widely used in foreign countries to form a mixed formation to improve combat efficiency and coordination capabilities. This is because the intelligent system of UAVs cannot replace human thinking and judgment.

Manually controlled formations have communication delays or signal interruption/interference problems, especially the communication between the UAV and the command system may expose itself, and the command aircraft may also be difficult to both guide and command the UAV and ensure its own safety. . Therefore, the debate over the advantages and disadvantages of the independent use of UAVs and the mixed formation of UAVs and UAVs will exist for a long time.

Most of the drones in active service perform reconnaissance and patrol missions in accordance with fixed procedures and mission routes. Even drones with attack capabilities are manually controlled. Therefore, the autonomous working capabilities of active armed UAVs are concentrated in the narrow range of autonomous flight, and attack UAVs lacking autonomous decision-making capabilities have obvious flaws in the flexibility of use. UCAV, which can truly meet the requirements of unmanned attack systems, needs to have the ability to make independent decision-making and mission planning. The controller only participates in decision-making when dealing with emergencies, and the flexibility of the system is improved through the method of autonomously completing planning tasks and manual auxiliary control by drones. sex. The independent combat capability of the unmanned stealth attack aircraft cannot currently be compared with the manned aircraft under the same technical conditions, but the advantages in production, maintenance and use costs are conducive to the expansion of the equipment scale.

The use of unmanned attack aircraft to replace some of the conventional attack aircraft is also conducive to the improvement of the overall combat effectiveness. Unmanned attack aircraft want to replace conventional attacks. The prerequisite for the attack function is not only the improvement of the level of self-control, but also the sensors, digital fly-by-wire flight control, data link, external management system and electronic countermeasures that are not lower than conventional attack aircraft, and truly become intelligent combat weapons. Instead of the current game machine-style "manual + program" control system.