The 14th Airshow China kicked off in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong province, Nov 8, 2022. The reporter learned that many departments and units brought new products, new technologies, new services and new achievements to the exhibition. The exhibits focused on the cutting-edge technologies and innovative breakthroughs in China's aerospace and national defense science and technology. Many of them "high, fine, sharp" heavyweight products, department debut.

High subsonic Large Maneuverable Stealth Unmanned Target Aircraft: A "New Talent" in Simulated Combat Field

At the 14th China Air Show, a high-subsonic high-mobility stealth unmanned target vehicle developed and produced by the No.149 Factory of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) attracted much attention. According to the report, the unmanned target vehicle is mainly used to simulate the fourth and fifth generation warplanes, cruise missiles and other target characteristics, to achieve the multi-type air defense equipment system of high subsonic target acquisition, aiming, lightning calibration and live firing training and other tasks.

The reporter learned from the eighth Academy of Astronautics that the high subsonic large mobile stealth unmanned target aircraft developed and produced by the factory made its debut at the air show. With the characteristics of "non-contact and high performance", it has become an auxiliary force for the development of air defense equipment. The unmanned target vehicle is 4 meters long, with a wingspan of 1.8 meters and a double vertical tail design. It has good radar stealth characteristics, a maximum flight height of 12,000 meters, and a flight endurance of 70 minutes. It can assume the imaginary enemy of the medium-short range air defense equipment system according to the task, so as to review the results of actual combat exercises.

With the rapid development of unmanned system technology, the intelligent level of unmanned target vehicle is gradually improved, which can be adjusted according to mission requirements. The unmanned target vehicle has a rich load, can carry light tube, dragon ball, electronic jammer, decoy and other equipment, so as to meet the simulation of different types of aircraft, cruise missile target characteristics.

According to the introduction, the unmanned target vehicle is launched by rocket booster in the take-off stage, and the power system uses the double turbojet, which greatly increases the reliability. Through the recovery mode of umbrella and airbag, the task requirements of safe recovery and reuse are met, as well as the free switching of self-driving control and artificial flight functions. At the same time, the unmanned target vehicle can use its own integrated navigation function to real-time transmission of flight trajectory and flight parameters to the ground telemetry system and record and save, with high-precision line pressing capability, can realize the flight mission in the night and moderate weather environment.

As a simulated cluster target type, the unmanned target vehicle can complete the formation flight of two-aircraft, three-aircraft or even ten aircraft in the air, realize the form of "ten aircraft at one station" and "multi-station combination", realize the cooperative task allocation of up to 40 aircraft, multi-saturation attack simulation and other advantages. The unmanned target vehicle cluster formation can simulate all types of typical formations in air combat, forming echelons, wedging teams, columns, horizontal teams, arrow teams, snake teams, etc., so as to present a flexible and changeable systematic posture, realize the evolution from a single field cluster to a cross-field cluster, and pay more attention to the simulation ability of complex environment and the collaborative combat ability of manned and unmanned platforms.

In the test mission, the UAV simulated a mixed formation of fighter jets, bombers, fighters and cruise missiles. By installing a signal amplifier in the front to simulate decoy bombs, a reflector in the middle to simulate fighter escort, and a signal booster in the rear to simulate bombers, the UAV realized real scenarios such as decoy in the front, suppression in the middle, and bombing in the rear. At present, the high-subsonic high-mobility stealth unmanned target vehicle has excellent multi-mission flight capability, and can be customized and upgraded according to user requirements to achieve the optimal flight effect.

Medium - and long-range air defense missile weapon system: Let the enemy "steal chicken but not eat rice"

At the 14th China Air Show, an air defense weapon from the Eighth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation unveiled its mystery and came into the public eye for the first time. It is the medium and long range air defense missile system.

The reporter learned from the eighth Academy of Aerospace Engineering that this type of air defense product is based on the third generation of medium-range air defense weapons and a large number of advanced technologies of the fourth generation of air defense weapons. It has excellent anti-saturation, anti-interference and automatic combat performance, and can effectively intercept precision-guided munitions, ballistic missiles, combat aircraft and so on. It can not only protect its own fixed targets, but also protect its own fixed targets. It can also cover mobile combat units.

In the rapid iteration of world military technology, there are many epoch-making new designs and new operational styles. Ballistic missile and precision-guided munitions saturation attack is a headache for the defense system of today's countries. To keep these targets out, the radar, the "eye" of an anti-aircraft weapon system, must see far enough and far enough.

In order to practice a pair of "sharp eyes", the tracking and guidance radar of the eighth Courtyard air defense missile weapon system on display at the Air Show adopts the advanced active phased array radar system and component technology, integrating search and tracking, irradiation guidance and identification of friend or foe. Compared with the traditional machine scan radar, the detection range and the number of tracking targets can be greatly increased, and the radar components are like the compound eyes of insects. The damage of a few components will not affect the normal use of radar, which greatly improves the reliability of radar use.

Although the ballistic missile is daunting because of its fast speed, powerful, high accuracy to hit the target, but its weakness lies in the simple parabolic motion. So designers have given radar the ability to "anticipate" the moment it detects a target, it can calculate and simulate a highly accurate trajectory and constantly correct it.

The capabilities of a weapon system cannot be left to the eyes alone. The command center, the brain, and the hands that grasp the target must also be matched. The traditional command and control system has high requirements on the operators, and it often needs a lot of training and training before it can be truly put into practice. Once a large number of targets are attacked, excessive reliance on manual operation may cause confusion.

According to the introduction, the air defense product focuses on the breakthrough of command and control automation technology, to achieve the integration of automatic combat from detection, discovery, identification, tracking, launch and interception, with "brain" instead of "brain", human-computer interaction interface design friendly, convenient operation, after training can quickly form combat effectiveness. Compared with the previous improvements, the weapon system can intercept at least three times the number of targets at the same time, greatly improving the anti-saturation attack capability.

Moreover, the traditional subsystems are tightly coupled to each other, which affects the whole body. However, this product can automatically identify the available equipment in the system for reconstruction, even if a part of the system is destroyed by the enemy, the remaining intact equipment can continue to work, and the combat equipment "online" can be "online" or "offline" at any time.

In addition, this type of air defense products from radar, missiles, and the whole system all adopt various advanced anti-jamming measures to cope with conventional interference. It can not only be "immune" to interference, but also to obtain the location of the interference source, so that the enemy "steal chicken not erosion of the rice". At the same time, it can "turn defense to attack", take the initiative to deceive the interference source, and reduce the interference efficiency.

Short Range Low Speed Target System: The Best "Sparring Partner" of Air Defense Weapon

The short range low speed target missile system exhibited by the 806 Institute of the Eighth Institute of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation also attracted wide attention at the Air show. It is reported that this is the first time for the 806 target missile system product of the eighth Academy of Aerospace to show.

The short range and low speed target missile system is the equipment to provide the physical target needed in the development, identification, test and combat training of air defense weapons. Physical targets can simulate the flight speed, flight altitude, maneuvering characteristics, radiation characteristics and other target characteristics of air defense weapons, which is a necessary condition for the evaluation of air defense weapons' combat technology index and the exploration of ultimate performance. The "target missile system" is one of the important supporting equipment of air defense weapons, which can provide a means for the acquisition of relevant data needed to improve and upgrade air defense weapons.

The short range and low speed target projectile system is mainly composed of target projectile, launcher and fire control equipment, among which the target projectile simulates the physical target. The target projectile can simulate the flight characteristics and infrared radiation characteristics of the fixed-wing aircraft or cruise missile flying at low or ultra-low altitude, and can be used in the interception test and training of air defense weapons.

According to the designer in charge of the target missile system in the 806 Institute of the Eighth Academy of Aerospace Engineering, as a disposable consumable guarantee product, the target missile should not only simulate the real characteristics of the air attack target, but also reduce the use cost of the product as much as possible. Therefore, high reliability, low cost and versatility are important design criteria for the target missile system.

The designer said that most of the current target missile products are converted from retired missiles, although the cost is low, there are problems in the simulation accuracy of target characteristics, and the newly developed target missile products are restricted by high development costs and long development cycle.

The target projectile on display this time is a product designed with low cost under the premise of ensuring the simulation accuracy of target characteristics. It can be modularized to a certain extent. At the same time, the launcher and the fire control equipment can be used for multiple target projectile flight missions, which has the advantages of simple operation, safe and reliable, and short spread and collection time. In addition, the product on display this time can achieve a wider range of ballistic characteristics such as flight height, time, range and speed through the deployment of the target projectile power unit and structural unit, and can simulate more target motion characteristics.

At present, the target missile system developed by Aerospace 806 Institute has passed several rounds of flight test, and the technology is mature and the product is reliable. After the completion of the target missile system status appraisal, to meet the market demand has begun mass production. In the future, 806 Institute will also form a series of target products based on the system platform, further improve the ability to meet the personalized and customized selection requirements and rapid development and production, to provide users with high-precision and low-cost target products, and provide usable, easy to use and affordable support equipment.

Liquid oxygen methane engine: the magic vehicle of heaven and earth

With the liquid oxygen methane engine, it can enable the carrier vehicle to roam in space like an airplane and then fly back to the launch site, and it can also enable the carrier rocket to land vertically on the test site, constantly creating the miracle of heaven and earth. The liquid oxygen methane engine, developed by the Sixth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, also made its debut at the 14th Airshow China.

Previously, the Beijing 11 Institute of the Sixth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology used the technical foundation and research platform of the 50-ton hydrogen-oxygen engine to carry out the research on the re-use of the 60-ton liquid oxygen-methane engine technology, and completed the re-use test verification of a single engine for 13 times with a total of 2103 seconds. The key technologies for the re-use of the liquid oxygen-methane engine made a comprehensive breakthrough.

In order to meet higher performance requirements, we aim at environmental protection, reuse, low cost, improved performance and rich functions. Beijing Institute 11 of the Sixth Academy of Astronautics has started to develop a new liquid oxygen-methane engine, namely an 80-ton liquid oxygen-methane engine. The engine has made significant breakthroughs in performance and function. The ground thrust is 80 tons, and the engine is capable of 3-4 times ignition and starting. It can realize autonomous state monitoring and fault diagnosis.

With powerful hydrogen and oxygen engines, why push for methane engines? The chief designer of the engine, Tian Yuan, explained that methane combustion has no carbon accumulation and coking phenomenon, and it is very easy to use and maintain, which is very important. When the aircraft comes back, the methane engine doesn't need particularly complicated processing and can be reused, which is one of the main reasons it can be used for reusable aircraft.

In addition, the ratio of liquid oxygen to methane is between liquid hydrogen oxygen and liquid oxygen kerosene, which makes it more cost-effective. The density is higher than that of liquid hydrogen, and the demand volume of fuel of the same mass is reduced, and the storage volume is relatively small. Methane is widely available, plentiful and cheap. The liquid-oxygen-methane engine combines the advantages of hydrogen-oxygen engine and liquid-oxygen-kerosene engine, which has strong competitiveness and is one of the important development directions of space power in the future.

FH-97A: Loyal wingman

As the long unit of the industrial chain of unmanned systems, the ninth Academy of Aerospace accompanied several members of the unmanned systems industry family to the exhibition. Including FH-97A loyal wingman and FH-988 long range fixed wing unmanned transport aircraft as the representative of a number of UAVs and a variety of pods, "Feiteng series" intelligent precision guided weapons, FF series aero engines, involving defense and aerospace technology application two major exhibition areas. The reporter learned that the FH-97A "loyal Wingman" developed by the ninth Aerospace Academy Feihong Company was also exhibited for the first time.

The system is a new type of autonomous UAV formation system, which can cooperate with manned combat aircraft in dense formation and efficiently to carry out air control operations, air defense suppression and air escort. The system can not only solve the problems such as limited manpower and service scale, aging of aircraft, but also build the combat mode of manned and unmanned cooperation through the development of new quality unmanned combat force.

According to the introduction, the system has three outstanding characteristics. First, coordinated reconnaissance. Coordinate with special aircraft. Get out first. It can detect potential dangerous targets on the ground or in the air in advance and provide early warning to ensure that special aircraft avoid the route as early as possible. It can also make up the time and space range of special aircraft early warning and reconnaissance by using its advantages of long endurance and long range.

Second, coordinated air defense suppression. Coordinate with fighter aircraft to carry out anti-aircraft suppression operations. It can carry electronic reconnaissance and jamming loads to carry out close reconnaissance and jamming to the enemy, so as to ensure the penetration of fighter jets; It can also disable the enemy's air defense system by jamming the enemy's critical radio infrastructure for a long period of time.

Third, coordinated targeting. In air combat, the forward flight formation carries the reconnaissance payload to meet the enemy, detects the fire-control-level guidance data and distributes it to the main aircraft through the low probability of interception data link, and guides the main aircraft to fire first and destroy enemy air targets.

In addition, pods with different functions and specifications were also on display with the drones. They have radar jamming, reconnaissance, communication jamming, reconnaissance and other functions, which can meet different application scenarios. Editor/Xu Shengpeng