Chinese UAV/UCAV development

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SinoSoldier

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The US firmly remains one step ahead of the Chinese in the field of network-centric drone warfare:

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An arm of the Pentagon charged with fielding critical new technologies has developed a drone that not only carries out its mission without human piloting, but can talk to other drones to collaborate on getting the job done. The Perdix autonomous drone operates in cooperative swarms of 20 or more, working together towards a single goal.

Named after a character from Greek mythology that was changed into a partridge, the bird-sized Perdix drones were featured on the news program "60 Minutes" last night, January 8. In footage taken over the skies of Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, a trio of F/A-18 Super Hornet fighters release a total of 103 Perdix drones from small pods mounted on hardpoints on both wings. The drones are capable of withstanding ejection at speeds of up to Mach 0.6 and temperatures as low as minus 10 degrees Celsius.

GPS data, combined with a map of the area, shows that during the October 26 test the fighters released their Perdix drones in a long line their flight path. The drones formed up at a preselected point and then headed out to perform four different missions. Three of the missions involved hovering over a target while the fourth mission involved forming a 100-meter-wide circle in the sky.

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, the demonstration showed off Perdix's collective decision-making, adaptive formation flying, and self-healing abilities. The drones collectively decide that a mission has been accomplished, fly on to the next mission, and carry out that one. The benefit of a swarm is that if one drone drops out—and a few appear to crash—the group can rearrange itself to maintain coverage.

Developed by students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Perdix drones are inexpensive drones that draw inspiration from the commercial smartphone industry. The drones feature two sets of small wings, making them look like World War I fighter planes. The biplane configuration reduces wing weight and wingspan. The wings are
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and the fuselage is made of a kevlar composite. The drone is powered by a lithium polymer battery pack powering a rear-facing push propeller.

Perdix has been a known program since March 2016, when the Washington Post revealed footage of a
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. At the time, however, the Post stated the drones had already been undergoing flight testing for two years.

There are a multitude of uses for such a drone swarm. The drones could be released by fighters to provide reconnaissance for troops on the ground, hunting enemy forces and reporting their location. They could also jam enemy communications, form a wide-area flying communications network, or provide persistent surveillance of a particular area. They could be loaded with small explosive charges and attack individual enemy soldiers. In air-to-air combat, they could spoof enemy radars on aircraft, ground vehicles, and missiles by pretending to be much larger targets.

The drones are a pet project of the
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, which is in turn part of the Pentagon's Third Offset Strategy. Third Offset is designed to use America's technological edge and combine it with new ideas to maintain dominance against potential adversaries. Other concepts include the "
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", which uses older, larger aircraft such as the B-52 to act as a flying arsenal for newer planes like the F-35, carrying a vast number of weapons that can be fired on cue.
 

Blitzo

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The US firmly remains one step ahead of the Chinese in the field of network-centric drone warfare:

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Lol, that's a hard sell -- I don't even think the US is necessarily ahead of China in "network-centric" (I think what you're really thinking about is swarming) drone R&D... let alone applying swarming drones in an actual operational product.

If anything, what this Pentagon test achieved is not too dissimilar to what CETC revealed back at Zhuhai at last year. One difference of course is that the Pentagon's Perdix drones are quite a bit smaller than CETC's drones and weren't recoverable, but could be deployed from fighter aircraft, but both demonstrations are just that -- tech demos.

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AssassinsMace

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I saw the 60 minutes story. Looked cool but then that's it. Until they can have these drones flying for long periods of time, other systems can do just as good of a job. Also they made a lot of noise. Probably can only be used at night.
 

Blitzo

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I saw the 60 minutes story. Looked cool but then that's it. Until they can have these drones flying for long periods of time, other systems can do just as good of a job. Also they made a lot of noise. Probably can only be used at night.

Yeah, well I think it's pretty clear that the US test was just a proof of concept for swarming drones and not meant to be a practical system that can be deployed in a realistic environment any time soon.

That isn't to say the test itself isn't meaningful -- the software and hardware to get drones to swarm and to control them and to have them sense and avoid each other are important milestones before the emergence of truly practical drone swarming systems.

.... But at this stage it's pretty dubious to suggest that this test is any sort of a viable weapon, especially in a higher intensity environment.
 

AssassinsMace

Lieutenant General
Yeah, well I think it's pretty clear that the US test was just a proof of concept for swarming drones and not meant to be a practical system that can be deployed in a realistic environment any time soon.

That isn't to say the test itself isn't meaningful -- the software and hardware to get drones to swarm and to control them and to have them sense and avoid each other are important milestones before the emergence of truly practical drone swarming systems.

.... But at this stage it's pretty dubious to suggest that this test is any sort of a viable weapon, especially in a higher intensity environment.

The 60 Minutes story just show a bunch of drones flying with one another. We've already seen the video out of China doing the same. They also showed them launch around 300 of these drones from three F-18s. Like I said cool to see but they didn't explain how they'll be used. That's because yes they're just showing off the tech. Given they don't last long flying around, right now you can have a standard surveillance drone or aircraft doing the spotting and then ordinance can launched to the location and probably without all the noise warning the enemy beforehand. Right now these drones are just a more sophisticated way of doing something just as good with lesser tech.
 

SinoSoldier

Colonel
Lol, that's a hard sell -- I don't even think the US is necessarily ahead of China in "network-centric" (I think what you're really thinking about is swarming) drone R&D... let alone applying swarming drones in an actual operational product.

If anything, what this Pentagon test achieved is not too dissimilar to what CETC revealed back at Zhuhai at last year. One difference of course is that the Pentagon's Perdix drones are quite a bit smaller than CETC's drones and weren't recoverable, but could be deployed from fighter aircraft, but both demonstrations are just that -- tech demos.

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I think the key functional advantage the US system has is that there simply a lot more drones involved than the Chinese example. Additionally, controlling them from flying aircraft is probably a lot tougher than doing so from the ground.
 

SinoSoldier

Colonel
The 60 Minutes story just show a bunch of drones flying with one another. We've already seen the video out of China doing the same. They also showed them launch around 300 of these drones from three F-18s. Like I said cool to see but they didn't explain how they'll be used. That's because yes they're just showing off the tech. Given they don't last long flying around, right now you can have a standard surveillance drone or aircraft doing the spotting and then ordinance can launched to the location and probably without all the noise warning the enemy beforehand. Right now these drones are just a more sophisticated way of doing something just as good with lesser tech.

Tech demonstrator, perhaps, but to deploy them from F-18s shows that it's a lot closer to being weaponized than the Chinese drone system. Of course, the usage of military jets to deploy them in the first place shows that the USAF intends to realize the technology as a future combat system.
 

Blitzo

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I think the key functional advantage the US system has is that there simply a lot more drones involved than the Chinese example. Additionally, controlling them from flying aircraft is probably a lot tougher than doing so from the ground.

More or less immaterial to my overall point, which is that the original comment you made along with the article, "The US firmly remains one step ahead of the Chinese in the field of network-centric drone warfare" is rather baseless.

Hell, even if CETC didnt' reveal their own drone swarm demonstration last year, I would still say that making such a statement is silly because the Pentagon's demonstration is at best a tech demonstrator with very limited practical real world applications, especially in high intensity warfare.

At best you could have tried to say it is an important step forwards in drone swarming R&D, but "warfare"? Nah, that's way pushing it.
 

AssassinsMace

Lieutenant General
Tech demonstrator, perhaps, but to deploy them from F-18s shows that it's a lot closer to being weaponized than the Chinese drone system. Of course, the usage of military jets to deploy them in the first place shows that the USAF intends to realize the technology as a future combat system.


Yes but again doesn't really change the fact the drone itself flies less than an hour. An advanced country would shoot those F-18s or any other aircraft down before they can deploy those drones because they would have to be deep into enemy territory in order for them to be used. That's the hitch. The airborne laser program sounds neat and all advanced yet doesn't have the range and it would have to be literally flying over enemy territory to have a chance to shoot down an ICBM. That's why the program was cancelled. Or when everyone saw how the J-20 side weapons bay worked and the naysayers pointed to how simple it was compared to the F-22. More sophisticated means more links in the chain that can break rendering it useless. Right now you have sophisticated way to deploy a simple drone with not a lot of range and makes a lot of noise letting the enemy know they're coming. Just because it has advanced technology doesn't make it practical in warfare. Think if they used them over a city or town. If it's carrying an explosive it'll have to find a target in less than an hour before it drops out of the sky. It'll have to self-detonate or it'll drop to the ground for some kid to find it thinking it's a toy and it'll explode in their face. No different from the controversy over cluster bombs with unexploded ordinance. As is either way it's a big waste in money or innocent lives. I believe I heard that these drones will be ready to use in a few years. On who? The most unsophisticated army in the world that it would be safe to used them against without worrying how its short lifespan increases the likelihood for this advanced technology to fall into the wrong hands? And why would they be used against them in the first place? Technology isn't going to expand in three years where these things can fly hours on end so all those shortcomings wouldn't be a concern. Hence why these drones are about just showing off and not practical in warfare anytime soon.
 

SinoSoldier

Colonel
More or less immaterial to my overall point, which is that the original comment you made along with the article, "The US firmly remains one step ahead of the Chinese in the field of network-centric drone warfare" is rather baseless.

Hell, even if CETC didnt' reveal their own drone swarm demonstration last year, I would still say that making such a statement is silly because the Pentagon's demonstration is at best a tech demonstrator with very limited practical real world applications, especially in high intensity warfare.

At best you could have tried to say it is an important step forwards in drone swarming R&D, but "warfare"? Nah, that's way pushing it.

Yes but again doesn't really change the fact the drone itself flies less than an hour. An advanced country would shoot those F-18s or any other aircraft down before they can deploy those drones because they would have to be deep into enemy territory in order for them to be used. That's the hitch. The airborne laser program sounds neat and all advanced yet doesn't have the range and it would have to be literally flying over enemy territory to have a chance to shoot down an ICBM. That's why the program was cancelled. Or when everyone saw how the J-20 side weapons bay worked and the naysayers pointed to how simple it was compared to the F-22. More sophisticated means more links in the chain that can break rendering it useless. Right now you have sophisticated way to deploy a simple drone with not a lot of range and makes a lot of noise letting the enemy know they're coming. Just because it has advanced technology doesn't make it practical in warfare. Think if they used them over a city or town. If it's carrying an explosive it'll have to find a target in less than an hour before it drops out of the sky. It'll have to self-detonate or it'll drop to the ground for some kid to find it thinking it's a toy and it'll explode in their face. No different from the controversy over cluster bombs with unexploded ordinance. As is either way it's a big waste in money or innocent lives. I believe I heard that these drones will be ready to use in a few years. On who? The most unsophisticated army in the world that it would be safe to used them against without worrying how its short lifespan increases the likelihood for this advanced technology to fall into the wrong hands? And why would they be used against them in the first place? Technology isn't going to expand in three years where these things can fly hours on end so all those shortcomings wouldn't be a concern. Hence why these drones are about just showing off and not practical in warfare anytime soon.

Of course the Perdix isn't a deployed or a fully-fledged weapon system. That wasn't the assertion of my previous post. The joint DoD-MIT team even stated that more work needs to be done.

The Perdix, nevertheless, is a lot closer to a notional weaponized form than are CETC's drones; the former could survive in much higher airflow speeds and likely has greater resistance to extreme altitudes/temperature. The compact size of the Perdix (allowing 100+ to be carried by a fighter) also contributes to its viability as an air force asset.

Remotely controlling semi-autonomous drones (103 of them) to perform collective tasks could also indicate more capable software or control terminal (although CETC could be looking to expand the scope of their drone fleets as well).
 
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