Article Type: Current Military
Article Date: June 26, 2002
We used to think of robots as clunky mechanical men. Images from TV and cinema in the 1950s were finally eclipsed when Star Trek first aired in 1968 with a ship’s computer that could talk and even maneuver the vessel.
Today we are somewhere in between as far as our state of the art goes. What we called drones were used as flying targets in WWII with fairly simple technology of the 1930s. They offered gunnery students real planes to shoot at instead of a white sock towed by training planes. But the limitation was that the remote pilot had to actually see his ship to fly it by radio link. It’s only a little like “outside view” in a flight sim.
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| Hs 293 Radio-controlled guided missle |
German technology created the Mistel, which converted Ju 88s into unmanned bombs packed with explosives and mounted a piloted Bf-109 or Fw-190 on stilts above. Near the target the pilot in the fighter would cut his burden loose and steer it to the target by line of sight view.
The German remote control technology also included air-to-surface missiles like the Henschel Hs 293, which were actually used in combat. Even a TV camera-guided version was planned in the H2 293D modification of the Hs293, but it was never realized before the war ended. All in all, things pretty much remained at that general state of technology until fairly recently.
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| Used in Viet Nam |
The Air Force has many times piddled around with RPV. The 1970s saw a resurgence of thought in that area but no substantial programs evolved. The new ingredient was the use of the fledgling computer. During Viet Nam the Lightning Bug recon drone successfully completed numerous missions. So after Viet Nam it became a fashionable idea to tone down human combat casualties and evolve machine that could “die” for us if need be.
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| Current type of recon UAV |
These robot machines have successfully been used as reconnaissance gatherers. During Desert Storm a comparatively crude mini-drone recon ship with a ten-foot wingspan was the first to see Iraqi soldiers surrender to an RPV. As manned craft had to get higher and faster to observe enemy areas, like the U-2 and SR-71, cost per copy became obscene. A reverse thinking said a cheap, unmanned craft could fly low and slow and do some of the same work since satellites now commanded space with optics that can “see” with astonishing clarity.
Small RPVs could fly in and use their television cameras to see real-time action from different angles and be steered around to zero in on desired objects. If they were destroyed, their pilots put their joysticks down and got a beer.
But what about combat? The Predator UAVs became a UCAV when it unleashed Hellfire missiles on targets in Afghanistan. This was a first in some respects but ordnance release is still at the command of humans even though the craft does most of the flying and analyzing of input data on its own. Also flying is the Lockheed Darkstar, which can carry a 1,200 lb. payload, hit 50,000 feet and stay up for twelve hours. It could conceivably carry weapons too.
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Predator used Hellfires  |
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| Weird looking Darkstar |
At the end of WWII German missilery was advanced to the stage where Telefunken engineers had the Einlenk and “r” computers to assist remote control operators. A further development in the BV 246 glider bomb used microwave beams to guide the device from the launch bomber but this was sophisticated for the time. Though these signals couldn’t be jammed as such the technology required the parent plane to remain in the general area to feed in course changes. The Bv 246 could make relatively large course maneuvers if need be.
All this STILL doesn’t describe fully robotic craft capable of thinking on their own without input from humans. This is where the Boeing X-45 comes in.
This is where all the previously extracted experience and technology is going. The X-45 will be a weapon costing $10-15 million dollars per clone. This is one-third the projected cost of the manned JSF—Joint Strike Fighter. Economics is apparent when it is assumable to have more craft for the same money. Right now the X-45’s proposed mission will be suppression of air defenses in an air-to-surface role. That could evolve. It should be in service by 2008.
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| The Boeing X-45A |
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| X-45 on the tarmac |
The X-45 has a fighter-sized 34-foot wingspan and is 26.5 feet long and weighing 15,000 lbs loaded. It is stealthy in contour and construction looking a bit like a mini-B-2 aft with an extended V-shaped nose protruding from the leading edge and a bloated, but stealth fuselage. It can top 40,000 feet and hit nearly Mach 1. It will ultimately extend its range by refueling in the air like manned planes we know today. The X-45 can tote 3,000 lbs. of ordnance and has a range of 375 miles.
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| Wonder how it will look in camo |
While it is publicly stated that the plane “will compliment manned assets, not replace them,” the latest Rand study has concluded that the F-35 will be the final manned US fighter. Defense analysts agree and the Pentagon plans that by 2020 one-third of America’s combat planes will be unmanned. Boeing has three craft in mind. Air-to-surface, like the initial X-45, high altitude recon, and tactical. That latter is the one that intrigues us. That’s a robot fighter.
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| Global Hawk |
It is relatively easy to program a UAV to fly high and take pictures and transmit sensor data home and even react to outside influences like making evasive maneuvers. The Global Hawk can do it and has topped 65,000 feet being able to stay aloft for 36 hours. If that’s not high or long enough the Helios solar powered flying wing can get up to 100,000 feet and literally hang around for months. The Predator has proven that it’s just a short step away to the X-45’s mission of automatically launching ordnance against foes on the ground.
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| Helios is cheap but does the job |
The tactical fighter role will be the jewel in the crown. When, not if, they can achieve a system with computers sophisticated enough to truly instigate action and react to threats in an unpredictable repertoire of maneuvers it will spell the end for fighter pilots.
Look at a manned fighter. Much of the cost of its “guts” is equipment geared toward the life support, survival and complimentary actions of the human aboard. It’s larger and heavier to accommodate him. The pilot is limited to what he can physically withstand as to G forces. The aircraft is not. A robot fighter can be built to withstand enormous G force in the order of 15 Gs and not tear apart. The future X-fighter will not even need a control system, as we know it. A central CPU, if you will, will orchestrate control movement via electronic link to move the surfaces. What is most important is that with high G maneuverability it will be on a manned enemy’s tail in two turns faster than the cheating AI of a combat flight sim!
Vast computer power is on the horizon to accomplish the tasks autonomously. Yes, without human input. Motorola has recently developed a crystal-based (sci-fi writers have imagined this long ago—Babylon 5) integrated CPU capable of 70 gigahertz. And this is the prototype. If “normal” silicone-based chips have progressed in power in the past few years as they have, it is unpredictable what may be wrought from this new technology.
So what type of weaponry will robotic fighters mount in 2050 when the last-last refurbishment of “old” JSFs is long done? Assuredly, they will be some form of laser weapon. Recently a CH-47 tested a combat laser mounted on a pallet package that produced a four-inch beam quite powerful enough to destroy most anything. The system is too big now, but think how quickly all other technology has miniaturized.
Of course it makes sense that a small nuclear power source will be developed for charging the weapon and providing energy for onboard systems. This will leave the next generations of jet engines to work on providing thrust only. These power plants will not even need to be built to the exacting nth degree of reliability required in manned craft today though they will probably be better by default of techno-advances anyway.
Initially it is foreseen that the UCAVs will operate in concert with manned craft ingress to hostile territory. Certainly X-45-type ships will go in first and eradicate SAMs, radar stations and other defensive vehicles and equipment leaving the manned planes to…do what? UAVs have already reconned the area and relayed their findings in real time to HQ where military analysts and strategists have programmed the ground attack robots’ targets. The manned fighters will be available to what, engage enemy fighters? With fewer and fewer nations able to field and service today’s expensive and sophisticated planes, and fewer of them it may be a non-event.
If Allied pilots could romp through Iraq without a single casualty due to enemy air-to-air action, whom will we be contesting in the future? Only a few NATO nations are capable of the costly development of any future manned fighters. As the military has learned, many flare ups around the globe need surgical actions of the police nature. It is special ops teams on the ground and peace keeping forces. With the disintegration of the Soviet Union there will be little in the way of hordes of hot future fighters to deal with. It will be more of the age-old guerilla combat and that in urban surroundings. Any robot craft will need to distinguish between friend, foe and neutral civilians to accomplish its mission.
We can certainly see the possible need for robotic armor. The massive M-1 line is over. The Pentagon has decided that future manned armor will be lighter and less expensive so UA (Unmanned Armor) is a natural. A small, maneuverable mini-tank could probe both urban and other fields of action. The M-1 system, is already so advanced that none were lost to Iraqi armor during Desert Storm balanced by an outrageous number of kills, many made at ranges where the enemy couldn’t even detect them much less accurately shoot. And who is building any advanced armor beside NATO nations? So picture new tech on top of the M-1’s in a miniaturized, unmanned future tank.
To compliment UA units we will see UCARs—Uninhabited Combat Armed Rotorcraft. They are now undergoing the same developmental process that the X-45 is and we can expect them to patrol, seek and destroy in any environment using the successor to the Hellfire missile.
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| UCAR concept |
One UAV rotorcraft is in development for the Navy but has had and on/off situation. Originally the Navy wanted craft with greater mission range but it seems likely this is all they'll get. The Ryan-Schweizer RQ-8A “Firescout” was originally derived from a three-man helicopter by Schweizer that traces its heritage to the Hughes 300. Its sensor pod has electro-optics, laser range finder and infrared cameras. It is to be controlled over a data link system that could be “piloted” from even a humvee.
Plying the oceans will still be manned ships, though many fewer than now. There will be robot craft beyond the radio-controlled, explosive-filled ones tested before. They will be stealth in configuration and be able to launch a variety of weapons too. Aircraft carriers are due to change too. Boeing is bidding on an unmanned aircraft system for the US Navy also. Pegasus is Northrop-Grumman’s X-47 diamond-shaped, sub-sonic UCAV that can carry a 500 lb. payload but can stay up twelve hours. It’s capable of STOVL. Though smaller than the X-45 it can pull 6 Gs compared to the Boeing craft’s 3 Gs.
Quite logically, in the foreseeable future to 2050, there will actually be no niche for unmanned combat fighters as they’ll have little or nothing to mix it up with since their ground attack brethren will have taken out most of any possible existing enemy fighters. Picture the video we saw of F-117s’ ordnance cameras homing in on hardened fighter hangers in Iraq at night. Picture the X-45 doing the same thing. With goodly numbers of X-45s coming in there’d be nothing to put in the air by sunrise since we own the night.
We see Afghanistan. A number of decrepit MiG 21s sat in disarray. Even if they had pilots the runways were Swiss cheese. If they would have taken off the same fate awaited them as hotshot Iraqi pilots a decade ago anyway.
So realistically, I believe that UCAV fighters will not pan out as viable air-to-air weapons though I’m sure the Pentagon will ultimately put them in the budget and get them. Other UCAVs, UAs and UCARs will have a valid role in any future conflicts attacking ground targets.
Today most of the major and even not so major, aerospace companies are in development of UAVs with many contracts up for grabs. There exist today tiny insect-sized recon devices that can fly into a building via silent, sub-miniature electric motors and gather images with TV cameras the size of a fly’s eye. One is even powered by a “device that converts chemical energy into reciprocating motion through a direct non-combustion chemical reaction." It uses one propellant, has no flame or visible exhaust and can operate without oxygen. This is not sci-fi, it’s happening now. MAVs (Micro Aerial Vehicles) of larger size abound in number with weight measured in grams and size in the less than 6-inch range. This is not sci-fi, it’s happening now.
Other countries are actively involved in the development of UAVs and UCAVs. Silver Arrow, in Israel has the Sniper, which is a primary UAC just 342 lbs. with a 13-foot wingspan. A 38 HP piston engine propels it to maximums of 115 MPH and 5,000 feet altitude. It has a computer program to control it over its 6-hour recon missions but radio-control backup is available.
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| Sniper UAV |
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| A CL-289 launches |
Canadair has two robots. The CL-289 is a missile-type recon craft with sensor systems, a Zeiss optical camera pack plus an infrared camera pack. Canada, France, and West Germany have used its CL-89 predecessor. In Germany Aerospatiale fabricates it by Dornier, and in France. It entered service with German forces in 1990 and with the French in 1992 with combat use in Kosovo in 1999. It’s nearly twelve feet long weighing 485 lbs. with a speed of 450 MPH maximum during is 40-minute, auto-piloted flight. It returns to earth via parachute deployment.
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| CL-327 in flight |
As a complete opposite in concept the CL-327 is a VTOL rotorcraft with 13-foot blades standing six feet tall while weighing 770 lbs. The craft can attain 98 MPH and reach 18,000 feet over its 6.25-hour mission as it surveys the terrain below. It pre-programmed autopilot is backed up with GPS and radio-control.
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| Sagem's UAV |
In France Sagem is at work on the Sperwer High Velocity (HV), which is an entirely new UAV that is powered by a Micro-turbo engine good for 460 MPH and 33,000 feet altitude with a 250-mile range. The 13.75-foot fuselage with its 7.9-foot forward swept wings will weigh about 890 lbs. and capable of a 110-pound internal payload of imaging equipment and sensors, a laser target designator with even radar jamming payloads considered for it 2005-06 debut.
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| Sleek Fregate |
Matra-Aerospatiale is doing long-endurance UAV. The "HALE Fregate" is turbofan-powered shaped somewhat like the Predator. It will have a takeoff weight of 33,300 lbs. and would be able to fly at altitudes of up to 60,000 feet for 30 hours.
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| The menacing AVE |
Dassault has the sinister AVE, which stands for Air Vehicle Experimental translated from French. This black diamond has a retractable tricycle landing gear and is powered by two micro-turbo engines. Wingspan is equal to length at 7.9 feet. Loaded weight is 132 pounds with range about 93 miles and top speed of around 350 MPH. It is intended to evolve into UAV and UCAV platforms.
Across the Channel Britain's Cranfield University of Aeronautics is progressing on their “U-99” tailless delta design with tricycle landing gear with a span of 25.5 feet and length of 21.3 feet weighing 10,580 lbs. at takeoff. Two Ishikawajima Harima Heavy industries IHI-F3 turbofans of 3,680 lbs. thrust each give it an 860-mile range and the ability to carry 1,000 lbs of ordnance internally.
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| SAAB's SHARC |
SAAB is working on a UCAV designated "SHARC" (Swedish Highly Advanced Research Configuration). It will have a 26.2-foot wingspan, a length of 32.8 feet, with a weight of about five 11,025 pounds. It will not be high performance in nature or very maneuverable. They project a 2020 in-service target.
Only rumors of Sukoi’s UCAV exist, so it is not known what Russia can or will field.
It’s a bit repugnant to imagine a world in 2065 where someone says, “UCAV fighter Z28v978-51 is now an ace having downed five enemy fighters in air-to-air combat.”
