news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

in recent years, many countries have taken actions to develop cooperative combat aircraft, and the us air force has taken more actions in this regard. especially this year, with the implementation of a series of measures by the us air force, the development of cooperative combat aircraft has been interpreted by some foreign media as "entering a new stage."

the picture shows the us military xq-67a drone

in february this year, the xq-67a uav completed its first flight. the us air force said that it is the second-generation cooperative combat aircraft after the xq-58a uav and "will represent the future development direction of uavs."

in the same month, the u.s. air force and space force association held a war seminar, focusing specifically on collaborative combat aircraft.

in april, the u.s. air force signed a contract with two companies, including anduril, to manufacture prototypes of collaborative combat aircraft.

so, what exactly is a cooperative combat aircraft? why is it considered "the future development direction of drones"? in this issue, let us explore its development history, current status and prospects.

performance positioning is higher than that of unmanned "loyal wingman"

there is no clear definition of what a cooperative combat aircraft is, but there is a relatively unified understanding of its development source. the research and development of cooperative combat aircraft originated from the concept of unmanned "loyal wingman", but it is different from unmanned "loyal wingman". to be precise, its performance positioning is higher than that of unmanned "loyal wingman". it is an intelligent unmanned aerial vehicle that can autonomously cooperate with manned aircraft in a distributed formation to carry out large-scale operations.

judging from the concepts proposed and projects launched by some countries, cooperative combat aircraft can be a certain type of aircraft or multiple types of aircraft; it can be a series of aircraft or a system including aircraft.

no matter what form it takes in the future, it will have some common characteristics.

first, high degree of autonomy. with the support of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, autonomous flight, human-machine teaming, advanced sensors and navigation, cooperative combat aircraft will be supported by a "smart brain" similar to the human brain, and thus have the ability to fly autonomously and collaborate on demand. for example, the "sky borg" autonomous intelligent control core system developed by the us air force can be regarded as part of the "smart brain" and can automatically control the flight of aircraft.

second, it is safe and reliable. with the help of technologies such as big data, big models, and intelligent algorithms, as well as some procedural constraints involving ethics and authority, cooperative combat aircraft will be safer and more reliable, consciously obey the command of manned aircraft/lead aircraft, and even independently judge the needs of manned aircraft/lead aircraft and respond in a targeted manner.

third, it is flexible and versatile. to a certain extent, the cooperative combat aircraft can be almost uncontrolled by the ground station. after "long-term domestication", it can be flexibly grouped with manned aircraft in a "many-to-one" manner, and distributed in different positions according to the needs of various tasks to carry out tasks such as spying on the enemy, launching large-scale strikes, and using someone else as a substitute.

fourth, it is more practical. compared with unmanned "loyal wingman", cooperative combat aircraft can adapt to complex and strong confrontation environments and meet the needs of large-scale high-end combat. it adopts the modular design concept of "general platform + special payload" and "one machine with multiple types + one type with multiple functions", which can effectively reduce costs and facilitate large-scale production.

the driving force for development comes from "technical support + development expectations"

fundamentally speaking, the development of cooperative combat aircraft is based on the battlefield application of drones. however, the driving force for the continued development of cooperative combat aircraft comes from users' higher requirements and expectations for combat drones. this is because, in the process of using drones, countries have found that although drones have a series of advantages, they also have many shortcomings, which are mainly manifested in that they are not agile and intelligent enough to cooperate with manned aircraft on a large scale and fight side by side. therefore, cooperative combat aircraft have become a key research and development project in some countries.

specifically, the continued development of cooperative combat aircraft is mainly due to two factors. one aspect is the support of science and technology. with the widespread use of drones and the breakthrough of more technical difficulties, some disruptive technological achievements have gradually matured and been applied. these technologies provide strong support for the development of cooperative combat aircraft. take the us air force as an example. from the f-16 modified unmanned combat wingman promoted around 2010 to the us air force secretary's test drive of the x-62a smart aircraft in may this year, from xq-58a to xq-67a, their development is closely related to the technological breakthroughs achieved in a series of plans and projects promoted by the us military. these plans and projects include "low-cost expendable aircraft technology", "autonomous collaborative support technology", "external sensors", etc., and the "sky borg" autonomous intelligent control core system project is also among them.

another factor that continues to drive the development of collaborative combat aircraft is people's expectations of their role in future air combat.

first, it is believed that it can double the combat effectiveness of the air force. although the coordination between manned aircraft and unmanned aircraft is not a new concept, in the past, when unmanned aircraft coordinated with manned aircraft, most of the time the unmanned aircraft was just "cooperating", and could not achieve the level of seamless connection and close coordination between the two. the concept of cooperative combat aircraft and the promotion of many related work are to raise the coordination level between manned aircraft and unmanned aircraft to the required new height. the developers intend to make the cooperative combat aircraft truly complementary in function, joint action, and system combat with manned aircraft, thereby doubling the combat effectiveness of the air force.

the second reason is that it is believed to help optimize the future air force structure. the introduction of a new concept in the military field is usually to seek a certain advantage on the future battlefield. as a new concept, the introduction of cooperative combat aircraft has the same purpose. its maturity and application will change the layout of the future air force structure. with the emergence of manned aircraft and more unmanned aircraft formations, future air forces will gradually shift to unmanned aircraft as the main force, building an air structure with new advantages. the u.s. air force incorporated cooperative combat aircraft into the "next generation air dominance" system framework for this purpose.

many countries are competing to demonstrate r&d

the united states is a pioneer in the development of collaborative combat aircraft. the concept of collaborative combat aircraft was proposed by the united states in 2022. after years of exploration and practice, substantial breakthroughs have been made in technology.

at present, the first generation of cooperative combat aircraft developed by the united states has limited autonomous combat capabilities, and representative models include xq-58a, mq-28, mq-20, utap-22, etc. among them, mq-28a is a drone developed by the united states for australia. the current models of the second generation of cooperative combat aircraft include xq-67a and the upgraded xq-58 series. in addition, some well-known us military enterprises have also launched different types of cooperative combat aircraft, including gambit and fury cooperative combat aircraft.

as more countries pay attention to and attach importance to cooperative combat aircraft, many countries have also begun to demonstrate and develop in this regard. when european countries, japan, and india were demonstrating the development plan of the next-generation fighter, they took unmanned combat aircraft into consideration, trying to build a new system of "next-generation fighter + unmanned combat aircraft", and gradually make unmanned combat aircraft assume roles and tasks similar to cooperative combat aircraft. however, constrained by the development level of related technologies such as autonomous intelligence, formation flight, and algorithm software, the unmanned combat aircraft projects of the above-mentioned countries are currently mostly limited to the development of traditional unmanned wingman. in order to overcome these technical difficulties, some countries began to "hug together for warmth" and jointly tackle key problems. as to whether these measures can achieve the goal, further observation is needed.

in general, countries have different progress in the development of cooperative combat aircraft. it should be emphasized that even some advanced countries currently have cooperative combat aircraft that are mostly semi-autonomous and semi-intelligent, and have not been put into service.

however, in the process of exploration and practice in some advanced countries, the design features of the universal and modular production of cooperative combat aircraft have emerged. for example, the xq-67a adopts the universal airframe of the xq-58a and some research and development concepts of the "open" series of uavs. one of the advanced concepts of the "open" series of uavs is to adopt a model similar to "universal chassis + special payload", and on this basis, "derive" cooperative intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, cooperative air combat aircraft, cooperative training aircraft, high-end stealth reconnaissance and strike all-in-one aircraft and other models, in order to achieve the purpose of reducing costs and increasing efficiency.

about to enter the stage of accelerated development

the new development prospects will make the cooperative combat aircraft enter a stage of accelerated development. from the current perspective, the cooperative combat aircraft will continue to exert its strength in at least the following aspects in the future.

first, the human-machine interaction is deeper. whether from the current positioning or from the future tasks to be undertaken, the development of cooperative combat aircraft will face many problems. different from the initial machine-machine coordination and multi-machine interaction, the function of cooperative combat aircraft is more reflected in "many into one", "human-machine 'heart' communication", "high sensitivity response", etc., which requires solving the problems of mutual trust, controllability, clever programming, and intelligent application from the technical, ethical, and mechanism levels. in the future, it is not ruled out that the autonomous intelligent control core system such as the "sky borg" will be configured on manned aircraft.

second, the functions are more diversified. it can be foreseen that with the continuous development of technologies such as digital engineering, open architecture, and agile software development, the use of cooperative combat aircraft will be as common as the current drones, and a series of aircraft types will emerge, including cooperative bombers, cooperative attack aircraft, cooperative electronic warfare aircraft, cooperative reconnaissance and strike aircraft, cooperative refueling/transport aircraft, and cooperative training aircraft. in short, what kind of function is needed on the battlefield may determine what kind of aircraft type, which will make the functions of cooperative combat aircraft more diversified, gradually forming a "small system" of cooperative combat aircraft, integrating into and strongly supporting the "big system" of joint operations in a series, scale, and organization.

the third is lower cost of use. universal and modular design is conducive to reducing the cost of cooperative combat aircraft. however, as the demand for cooperative combat aircraft soars on future battlefields, there will inevitably be economic affordability issues. therefore, how to further reduce the cost will attract attention from all countries. with the development of science and technology, especially the advancement of information and intelligent technology, the research and development cost is expected to be further reduced after the large-scale use of cooperative combat aircraft.

there may be many uses

the cooperative combat aircraft can be said to be a pioneering intelligent air combat equipment. because of the emphasis on "coordination", the cooperative combat aircraft has the support of the "leader" or even a larger system, so it can perform tasks accurately and efficiently and respond flexibly to various threats. also because of the emphasis on "coordination", the cooperative combat aircraft will focus more "attention" on "what the leader needs me to do", so the replacement is more timely and efficient.

this development direction and application method will have a great impact on the air combat mode. compared with traditional unmanned wingman aircraft, its combat capability is different and may therefore have many uses.

first, they can act as "vanguards" and effectively suppress the opponent's air defense forces. manned aircraft are located outside the opponent's defense zone to command, and cooperative combat aircraft fly autonomously into the defense zone to carry out distributed and penetrating strikes, opening up channels for subsequent operations. in addition, some cooperative combat aircraft have intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance, electronic warfare and other capabilities, and can go forward to spy on the enemy and even implement interference, feints and deception, etc., making cooperative operations more effective.

second, they can be both "servants" and "masters", and can "switch positions" to command "swarm" operations. cooperative combat aircraft can be a supporting role for manned aircraft, or they can change roles to become a "second in command" that can take charge of everything. in particular, some high-end cooperative combat aircraft can even become "hosts" to launch and command micro-unmanned aerial vehicle swarms for defense and attack, consuming the opponent's advanced weapons and equipment, and thus seize the initiative on the battlefield.

the third is to use it as a low-cost "arsenal aircraft" to cooperate with manned aircraft to carry out large-scale strikes. cooperative combat aircraft do not have to be new models, but can also be modified based on old models. the purpose is to revitalize old equipment resources and use them as "external weapon depots" or "arsenal aircraft" to make up for the shortcomings of insufficient ammunition load of high-end stealth fighters, thereby achieving the best coordinated strike effect.