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Text/Sun Xingzhe

Speaking of modern unmanned equipment, in the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict, all kinds of drones and unmanned boats are definitely shining. From military-grade reconnaissance and strike drones to military FPV drones modified from civilian consumer drones, they are all flooding the battlefields in Ukraine. As for the Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet, which seemed to dominate the Black Sea, it was sunk by the Ukrainian army, which had almost no decent ships, about one-third of its combat ships, and even had to evacuate and relocate its base in a big step. This is the effect of the Ukrainian suicide unmanned boats. In China, where unmanned technology has long been very advanced, we are no longer simply satisfied with the development and use of equipment such as drones or unmanned boats. Giving them bionic technology with a strong camouflage effect has become a new development direction in the field of unmanned equipment industry in China, and once again at the forefront of the world.

According to the Global Times, in the "Gun King Challenge" held by the PLA Army Infantry Academy, the PLA showed off its new "hidden weapon". The participating team from the Navy took out an extremely novel "trump card", that is, the bionic eagle sparrow, which is divided into a relatively large bionic eagle and a relatively small bionic sparrow. Military analysts pointed out thatThe People's Liberation Army has taken the lead over other countries in the world, including the United States, in the research and development of bionic drones, especially in their application.

From the video report, we can see that both the bionic eagle and bionic sparrow can be carried and flown by a single soldier. Their size and appearance are extremely close to those of birds such as hawks and sparrows. Even the flapping of wings and the change of tail posture during flight have achieved an effect that can be called lifelike. Not only are the appearance and flying movements highly similar to those of real birds, but the noise made by these bionic hawks and sparrows during flight is also very small, and even has a silent effect. From this, it can be inferred that they should use a small motor as the power system, which may be powered by replaceable disposable batteries or built-in rechargeable batteries.

Overall, after applying bird bionic technology to the military field and making bionic hawks that are almost the same size as real birds, the relevant equipment has at least two major values, namely, strong portability and good concealment.In terms of stealth, it can be divided into two points: the flying action is close to that of real birds, which makes it difficult for human eyes to distinguish, and the low or even silent operation makes it difficult for the hearing organs to detect. These obviously have a value and significance in the military field, which can provide a lot of convenience for soldiers and enrich tactics.In order to achieve these effects and battlefield values, the efforts made by China in bird bionics technology cannot be ignored.

Whether it is the bionics of birds or flying insects, this type of artificial aircraft is generally called "flapping-wing flying robot" internationally. There are three main technical difficulties in flapping-wing flying robots, namely power system, lightweight materials and aerodynamic characteristics:

In terms of power, how to make a small flapping-wing flying robot have as long a flight time as possible, and how to make the flapping-wing flying robot maintain good flight performance when equipped with certain optical detection, navigation and other payloads, is directly related to whether the power system is advanced or not. This power must be small enough, but the output power must be large enough. Only by meeting these contradictory requirements at the same time can a qualified "heart" be provided for the flapping-wing flying robot.

As for lightweight materials, the body and wings of flapping-wing flying robots require materials with high strength, toughness and lifespan, especially to withstand a large number of wing flapping movements. This is a severe test for a country's materials science and materials industry.

In terms of aerodynamic characteristics, unlike fixed-wing aircraft or rotorcraft, which have relatively fixed aerodynamic characteristics, the aerodynamic characteristics of birds or flying insects are not fixed. The bending and tilting of the body, as well as the slight angle adjustment when the wings flap, will cause the aerodynamic characteristics to change, which is called "unsteady aerodynamic characteristics". If you want to perfectly restore this, especially to achieve an effect that is enough to deceive the human eye, you need to give the flapping-wing flying robot advanced sensors and flight control algorithms that can adjust the flight attitude in real time.

It is no exaggeration to say that any of the above three technical difficulties is enough to become a mountain in front of a major scientific and technological country, but China has overcome all of them and provided practical equipment for the troops, which is obviously particularly valuable. According to reports, the bionic hawk-like flapping-wing flying robot is mainly used for aerial reconnaissance, especially close-range aerial reconnaissance due to its good concealment and camouflage effects.

In the future, such flapping-wing flying robots may also take on tasks similar to small suicide drones, such as loading high-energy explosives inside, using their bird-like appearance to let the target relax its vigilance, and successfully approaching the target and detonating. It is difficult for the enemy to effectively defend against such attacks that are difficult to distinguish between true and false, unless they fire and intercept "everything flying in the sky", otherwise they will never be able to avoid being attacked 100%. In this way, are bird-like flapping-wing flying robots far more effective than many suicide drones in terms of combat effectiveness?

If suicide drones win by quantity, that is, by forming a "swarm" that makes it impossible for the opponent to intercept them, then bird flapping-wing flying robots obviously don't need to do that. Their strong camouflage and concealment characteristics are enough to make them highly undetectable and uninterceptable when launching a "lone wolf" attack. The results achieved by a suicide bird flapping-wing flying robot can probably catch up with the results achieved by a few to a dozen suicide drones using the "swarm" tactic.。

Flapping-wing flying robots that make extensive use of bionic technology are destined to become the new "force multiplier" of the Chinese military.