RU2749249C2 - Air-based reconnaissance and strike complex and its operation method (variants) - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: weapons.

SUBSTANCE: usage: the invention relates to the technique of high-precision cybernetic weapons. Essence: a lot of small gliders - microplanes equipped with an optical communication system-are dropped from the base aircraft - an airplane or a cruise missile. The gliders form a cloud that performs controlled flight, and perform the function of a relay network necessary for the operation of the system. In this case, the navigation positioning of the gliders is performed using data on the measurement of the delay time of the signals circulating in the specified optical communication system. During the flight of gliders, reconnaissance of the terrain, in particular television one, is carried out, as well as a shock impact made using small warheads on board the gliders. At the same time, the gliders are piloted so that they come to the point of detonation from different sides and at the same time. The sparseness of the glider cloud, combined with their large numbers, makes it impossible to intercept it on the way to the target. When the goal is reached, the cloud shrinks to a point. In this case, the explosion power of individual elements adds up with a cumulative effect.

EFFECT: invulnerability of the system is ensured when it overcomes an air defense system, in particular an object one; the reliability and credibility of the transmission of intelligence data, in particular target designation data, is increased, as well as the risk of hitting nearby non-military targets in the event of a miss is reduced.

4 cl, 8 dwg

Description

The invention relates to the structure of the material part of a high-precision cybernetic weapon system using an aircraft or a cruise missile as a basing platform.

The modern level of development of technology allows to significantly minimize the force factor of the damaging effect of weapons by increasing the accuracy. This requires a comprehensive systematic optimization of technical means of reconnaissance, strike force and control, which allows concentrating the damaging effect at the most critical point with minimal economic costs and with minimal risk to people and nature on both sides of the confrontation.

The closest to the proposed one in terms of essential features is a weapon system containing gliding guided bombs using an aircraft as a basing platform (see, for example: Wikipedia "GBU-39").

The wing and aircraft flight control system of such an aerial bomb makes it possible to accurately aim it at a target from a long distance, reaching 100 kilometers or more. At the same time, despite the absence of an engine, the bomb can maneuver, thus reducing the the probability of its interception. At the same time, the absence of an engine increases the payload ratio (warhead, guidance systems, etc.), and also reduces the dimension threshold, allowing, if necessary, to split the warhead into many smaller ones. This becomes possible due to the opened possibility of significant microminiaturization of the instrumental part. In this case, the bomb is aimed at the target using one of the classical methods, in particular, using laser target illumination. The disadvantages of the above system are:

a) the possibility of interception, because maneuvering is not an effective means to avoid this, and the size of the bomb and its radio signature, determined by the required mass of the warhead, are large.

b) insufficient reliability and range of the target designation system, tk. it operates only within direct radio or optical visibility.

c) a large, if necessary, warhead required to overcome the fortification of an object and, as a consequence, a great danger of destruction of nearby non-military objects in the event of a miss.

d) limited use of the mass attack factor.

e) the high economic cost of this weapon system, due to the large mass and high cost of gliding bombs.

The aim of the invention is to eliminate the above disadvantages.

An airborne reconnaissance and strike complex is proposed, containing non-motorized glider-type aircraft (hereinafter referred to as gliders) located on the base aircraft, equipped with automatic piloting systems. The purpose of the invention is achieved by the fact that each glider is equipped with an optical communication system with other gliders of this complex, which determines the possibility of cooperative actions of the gliders. This gives advantages in solving problems of collecting and transmitting information, as well as in solving navigation problems. In addition, the flight weight of the airframe can be reduced to values commensurate with the weight of microelectronic elements of the specified optical communication system and automatic piloting system, which is provided by the opening possibility of effective use of the total warhead distributed over many airframes. In particular, it becomes possible to increase the number of gliders in the system with the formation of a swarm or "cloud" of gliders, which ensures reliable transmission of signals for reconnaissance, target designation, positioning and control, making it resistant to damaging effects when overcoming an air defense system, to meteorological factors and all kinds of interference, including deliberate. Thus, a single, albeit "smart" bomb is replaced by a complex, flexible system distributed in space, which has many degrees of freedom and receives the same advantages in defense and attack as a multicellular organism has over a unicellular organism. Only in this case, this organism has dimensions of hundreds of kilometers and a significantly greater number of controllable degrees of freedom. Its only drawback over other large systems is the short life span, limited by the time of the gliding descent from the initial height. This is due to the absence of engines on the gliders. But this is also an advantage, because the absence of an engine removes the limitations of the miniaturization limit, simplifies and reduces the cost of the design of airframes and the entire system.

In a particular embodiment, the optical communication system contains on board each airframe a pulsed source of optical radiation and a photodetector having a wide directivity angle, for example, a semiconductor laser and a photodiode. The photodetector is connected to the code decoder by means of a preliminary parametric pulse selection unit. In this case, if the radiation of at least one of the other gliders falls into the receiving angle of the photodetector, then a temporary (virtual) communication line is formed. The multitude of such virtual links between individual gliders in the "cloud" enables continuous flow of information from one point of the glider cloud to another.

To increase the reliability of the operation of such a communication system in case of all kinds of damage and interference, you can install several of the above optical blocks, oriented in different directions. In this case, the so-called faceted structure of vision, similar to that of insects, is formed. It differs from the ordinary eye in its wide-angle in the absence of high-definition division of the image into pixels. Such a device, in addition to expanding the field of view in angle, allows to increase the speed of processing optical signals with limited capabilities of the brain (processor). At the same time, some angular selectivity is retained, which makes it possible to protect against all kinds of interference, for example, from the light of the sun, etc.

Moreover, in the field of view of a separate facet, there may be laser air defense systems. In this case, the laser pulse can burn out the photodetector. To protect against this, it is proposed to divide the photodetector of each facet into several elements, i.e. execute it by matrix. These will not be pixels in the usual sense. each element will still span several points in the image. However, this will preserve the performance of the facet while burning out its individual elements. Taking into account the disposability and short-term use of the airframe, which is a consumable material, the probability of accumulation of the number of damaged optical elements critical for the system's performance at any intensity of the laser attack is very small.

In a particular design, the glider can only perform the function of a repeater in a communication system. In other versions, it can be equipped with some kind of actuator. It can be a television camera of the optical or infrared range, which can be used for reconnaissance and target designation. It can also be a small explosive or chemical warhead. At the same time, one should not unconditionally exaggerate the danger of a chemical charge, when we are not talking about weapons of mass destruction, because here we usually mean stopping charges - non-lethal action without irreversible consequences. Moreover, the damaging effect can be focused on almost one person. Such systems are used in veterinary medicine in the form of immobilizing remote injections. A sensor of the composition of the atmosphere, an acoustic sensor, an electromagnetic sensor, or just a radio receiver, etc. can also be used, which can be useful for obtaining intelligence.

There are also several possible options for the method of functioning of the proposed Complex, which can be used in various combinations or independently.

In particular, a method of functioning of the proposed Complex is proposed, consisting in the automatic aiming of the glider at the target according to the signals of the target designation system. In this case, according to the invention, a large number of gliders are simultaneously directed to one target, guiding them along different trajectories so that they come to the target from different directions and at the same time. Thus, it is not a concentrated projectile that approaches the target, but a swarm of flying vehicles distributed in space, commensurate with the size of birds or even large insects that cannot be intercepted. The density of their relative position is high enough only in the immediate vicinity of the target, where the interception system can no longer be used. They can only be swept away by a strong wind flow. But in this case, the object of destruction should be a wind turbine. Thus, acting cooperatively, some of the swarm's gliders can deal with removing obstacles on the way to approach, while the other will break through the next echelon and, finally, the target itself. At the same time, in each case, the required number of gliders can participate in the defeat, forming a cumulative effect with simultaneous operation. (In this case, the cumulative effect here is simply an increase in the effectiveness of the simultaneous detonation of several closely spaced charges compared to their successive detonation in time). In this case, the strength of the total charge can vary tens of times depending on the current situation. In particular, in the event of a miss recorded by television cameras or a positioning system, the detonation of warheads can be automatically canceled.

In another variant of the functioning of the proposed Complex, many gliders are based on a cruise missile, which is made possible only by radical compaction of gliders. This can be done within the existing microelectronic instrumentation technology. Already, the dimensions of one glider can be reduced to a few centimeters. Basing such micro-gliders on a cruise missile will increase the initial gliding altitude up to several tens of kilometers with a corresponding increase in the gliding range. At the same time, before dropping the gliders, the rocket is brought up into a vertical flight by pitching in order to slow down and use all the kinetic energy of the rocket to increase the altitude, which in this case is limited by the aerodynamic heating of the gliders. If the specific load on the wing is reduced to 10 Pascals, then the casting height of the gliders can be increased to 80 km. However, at such an altitude, the free path of air molecules is more than a centimeter, and therefore viscous - dissipative processes prevail in aerodynamics, which sharply reduce the aerodynamic quality of the wing. So the optimum is the initial planning altitude of 30-40 km, which is easily provided by a cruise missile, which, moreover, will increase the total range of remote automatic operation of the system to several thousand km.

A variant of the functioning of the Complex is also possible, in which some of the gliders are landed on the way to the target with the formation of fixed reference points used as optical beacons for the needs of positioning and navigation. In this case, a part of the gliders is transferred to the barging descent mode at the flight points intermediate between the gliders that have landed. This is necessary to create a continuous relay chain that can be extended over several hundred kilometers.

Navigational positioning of all gliders in the Complex can be performed using a kind of triangulation by reference points, for example, by indicated beacons or by data received from the base aircraft. In this case, the current distances between the gliders are used as the initial data. The measurement of the current distances between the gliders is made by the time delay of the signals in the optical communication system. So there is no need to use a satellite positioning system, which is unstable to countermeasures.

The invention is illustrated by the following description of examples of execution and eight figures.

FIG. 1 shows a cross-section of one of the fuselage compartments of a base aircraft with gliders located therein.

FIG. 2 shows one of the gliders in working configuration (front view).

FIG. 3 is an exemplary schematic representation of the internal structure of the airframe.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the airframe fuselage passing through the side-looking facet belt of the optical communication system.

FIG. 5 shows one of the facet blocks of the airframe optical communication system.

FIG. 6 shows a diagram of the connection of the photocells of the facet unit with the code decoding unit, which provides protection against overload and damage by laser air defense systems.

FIG. 7 illustrates one of the options for the functioning of the proposed Complex with its basing on an airplane.

FIG. 8 illustrates another variant of operation using a cruise missile as a base aircraft.

The proposed reconnaissance and strike complex contains a base aircraft, in particular aircraft 1, in the fuselage of which gliders 2 are tightly placed (see Fig. 1). To increase the number of gliders accommodated in the aircraft 1, the glider wing 3 is folded due to the articulated connection of the wing consoles to the glider fuselage 4, as shown in FIG. 2. When the fuselage flaps 5 open, all gliders 2 located in this fuselage compartment fall down. In this case, the wing consoles 3 open due to their springs to the stop, thus becoming. into the working position (Fig. 2). At the same time, a switch is installed in the wing hinge, which turns on the chemical power source 6, from which all the glider devices operate, including the steering machines (with the exception of the onboard glider timers, which are never disconnected from the power supply).

The airframe's flight qualities are required of high aerodynamic quality (15-20 units), as well as the ability to spontaneously, without the aid of control, enter the gliding mode from any position, without entering a spin. However, a small percentage of glider losses is not excluded when they are dropped from an aircraft. It is also required to provide the possibility of stable rectilinear flight of the glider without an autopilot. In particular, roll stability can be achieved due to the upper position of the wing and the use of the so-called. "transverse V" wing (see Fig. 2). In addition, the glider must be strong enough to be dropped at the base aircraft's minimum flight speed, at least 10 km.

The power supply 6 must provide operation during the gliding descent time (1-2 hours). With an onboard power of 10 watts, the corresponding mass of the lithium battery will be about 70 g. It is advisable to place microcircuits and other elements of the control system electronics in the wing, which will make it possible to use the wing surface as a radiator.

Each of the gliders is equipped with an optical communication system consisting of a plurality of facet units 7, which together cover most of the sphere. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 and 4 design options have one nasal facet unit, covering the anterior hemisphere, and four side units. All of them are covered with fairings with a transparency window corresponding to the used range of optical radiation (for example, infrared). Each facet unit 7 (Fig. 5) in this embodiment consists of several lenses 8, covering in total an angle of about 120 degrees. Between the lenses, in the center of the block, there is one or more pulsed semiconductor lasers 9, which together also have a beam scattering angle of about 120 degrees. Lasers have small diameter individual objectives. Receiving lenses are oversized to increase sensitivity. However, they can still be no more than a few millimeters, as in the eyes of animals and humans, where the same requirements for sensitivity are provided. However, this system has large reserves for the brightness of the transmitting part, because the energy of a pulsed laser can be concentrated in a very short time. This makes the laser light source (not even sharply directed) visible at a distance of tens of kilometers, which is limited, however, by weather conditions. In this system, this problem is solved due to the high redundancy of the alternative channels formed by many gliders. If a glider is completely isolated (smoke, cloudiness, relief, etc.), then for some time he can continue planning blindly. The glider does not need an autonomous navigation system; its loss is quite admissible, in particular (in combat conditions) collisions are admissible. Of course, in the complete absence of control, it is difficult to avoid the rapid accumulation of drift along the course. To avoid this (in the case of blind flight), you can apply automatic course stabilization using a magnetic compass (By the way, there are assumptions that birds, when flying across the ocean, also use this).

In the focal plane of each of the lenses 8 is a matrix photodetector 10. It consists of individual semiconductor photocells 11 (Fig. 6), for example, photodiodes. The number of photocells can be much less than the number of elements of the image projected on them. A few photocells 11 are enough, because this device is not intended to capture an image.

The division of the photodetector into separate photocells is needed here only to protect the system from overloading or being hit by a laser. For this, the photocurrents of a plurality of photocells 11 are connected to a current summing circuit consisting of diodes "D" shown in FIG. 6. In addition, the circuit has diode voltage limiters "St". In this case, the voltage is limited to a value that excludes the possibility of damage to the circuit elements. In case of irreversible damage to individual photocells 11 by a laser beam (burning out), the system continues to work from the rest of the photocells. So breaks or short circuits of some of the photocells 11 do not affect the operation of the rest.

The output of the diode circuit for summing the currents of each of the lenses 8 is connected to a separate block 12 for preselection of signals, which processes all incoming signals, separating from them pulses of certain parameters of the duration and steepness of the edges. The pulses corresponding to the specified parameters of belonging to this system are passed to the decryption block 13, in which the time picture of their arrival is recorded. Decryption consists in identifying temporal correlation with a set of individual codes assigned to all gliders. If the glider identification code is recognized, the following information packet is decrypted. To protect against disclosure, identification codes can be changed periodically according to a pre-agreed program.

Information processing consists, in particular, in calculating the current coordinates of each glider in some common coordinate system. For this, the distances to all gliders from which the signals are received are first calculated. This is done by the time lag of the signals. In this case, an on-board exact time timer is used, and the received signals must contain the time of their sending. Having thus obtained the distances to the gliders, which are the direct sources of signals, it is possible to construct many beams. And using similar information received by other gliders and transmitted via an optical communication system, you can close the rays in a chain of triangles and extend this chain to any distance within the glider cloud. This method can be called a triangulation method only conditionally, since we do not measure angles here, as is done in topography. Moreover, the temporal measurement method provides a significantly higher triangulation accuracy than the angular one. In addition, it is much simpler in hardware implementation for this case. By extending the triangulation chain to any two gliders whose coordinates are known, we will get a binding to the terrain. Landing gliders as well as the base aircraft can be used as such anchor points.

The information thus obtained is used for the automatic piloting of each glider, under the control of the program that controls the operation as a whole. This program can be located on the base aircraft, or delegated to individual gliders with a hierarchy of priorities.

On board the airframe 2 in this embodiment also has one or two CCD cameras 14. They contain their own lens. The video signal is transmitted in burst mode over several parallel relay chains to the base aircraft, where the image can be processed by humans.

Warhead 15 may be placed on board all or some of the gliders. This may be an explosive with a guided fuse, or a container with some other substance. It can also be a liquid in combination with a jet or other apparatus for its use. Instead of a warhead, the glider can be equipped with various sensors for picking up reconnaissance information.

In one of the variants, the proposed Complex functions as follows. The base plane 1 (Fig. 7) flies up to the intended target at a distance corresponding to the gliding range, after which it drops all gliders 2 or the required part of them from a sufficiently large height, opening the hatches of 5 storage compartments. At the same time, the program for performing the flight mission is included. In particular, the flight mission may include preliminary reconnaissance, which is carried out by piloting a plurality of gliders 2 in the form of a scattered cloud towards the target, while filming the terrain. In this case, part of the gliders 2 can be landed at points determined by video information in order to obtain additional information from the landing site, including with the help of special sensors. Landing gliders can also be used as fixed navigation reference beacons. After specifying the coordinates of the target, a decision is made on the use of a lethal action. In this case, piloting is transferred to the mode of synchronous contraction of the cloud of gliders 2 to the point of destruction. Piloting is carried out using the current coordinates of the gliders, calculated as described above. So there is a large redundancy of positioning information, allowing the loss of a large part of the gliders without affecting the functioning of the system.

When approaching the target, it is necessary to regulate the flight speed of the gliders or make maneuvers that change the length of the trajectories of individual gliders in order to ensure the simultaneous arrival of all gliders at the point of destruction. In this case, it is possible to cancel the blast if the current calculations or video information show the presence of an unacceptable deviation from the target. You can adjust the glider's flight speed by controlling the flaps (or aileron with two-parameter control). If there is an echeloned defense of an object, then to overcome it, it may be necessary to perform several focusing of the glider cloud with the detonation of warheads. In this case, only a part of the cloud gliders is used for each of them. Those. the attack can be quickly rebuilt into an echeloned one. For this, a reserve of the number of gliders should be provided, placing them in space in the form of a plume of several echelons.

In another version of the proposed method of functioning of the proposed Complex, a cruise missile 16 (Fig. 8) is used to deliver gliders 2 to the starting point of planning. In this case, heights of up to 30-40 km and a gliding range of 300-400 km can be achieved. At the indicated heights, it is still possible to obtain a sufficiently high aerodynamic quality. At altitudes exceeding 80 km, if the specific load on the wing is not reduced to values less than 10 Pascals, gas-kinetic heating begins to affect, because gliding speed begins to exceed the speed of sound. This also greatly reduces the aerodynamic quality of the wing.

Gliders are dropped from rocket 16 after it has lowered its speed enough in a pitch-up ballistic flight so that the gliders do not collapse from the wind. In this case, all the kinetic energy of the rocket will also be useful.

The cruise missile 16 serving as the base aircraft, in turn, can be based on the aircraft 17 (Fig. 8). In this system, in addition to increasing the planning distance, the distance from which the base aircraft 17 can initiate the operation (up to several thousand km) also increases, which makes the operation safer, and also increases the range of the proposed complex to intercontinental and does not require refueling in the air. However, this is only possible if there is an appropriate communication channel. In addition to traditional communication channels, in this case, a relay network can be formed, formed by additional copies of the proposed complex, which are activated at intermediate points of the distance and at the right time, agreed throughout the system. Thus, it is possible to extend the remote action of the system for an unlimited distance, including across the ocean. At the same time, some gliders can splash down, continuing to perform relay or reconnaissance functions.

Thus, the proposed Complex allows you to significantly expand the capabilities of reconnaissance and active air combat operations, namely, to increase their efficiency, range, resistance to countermeasures, and also to reduce their cost. In fact, we get a new type of bomb - a cyber bomb distributed in space. And for its implementation, there is already all the necessary element base.

Claims (4)

1. An airborne reconnaissance and strike complex (hereinafter referred to as the Complex), containing non-motorized aircraft of a glider scheme (hereinafter referred to as gliders) located on the base aircraft, equipped with an automatic piloting system, characterized in that each glider is equipped with an optical communication system with other gliders of this a complex containing a non-directional pulsed light source and a photodetector, which are combined into blocks that form an element of a facet system, the field of view of which covers the predominant part of the sphere and which contains several lenses, in the focal plane of each of which a photodetector is located, divided into several separate photocells connected to a signal processing unit by means of a diode circuit for summing currents, and the total mass of a warhead required to hit a target is distributed among several gliders. 2. The method of functioning of the Complex, made according to claim 1, consisting in the automatic guidance of the glider at the target according to the signals of the target designation system, characterized in that the base aircraft flies to the target at a distance corresponding to the gliding range, and drops all gliders or their required part through storage compartment hatches, include the program for the flight mission, and when approaching the target, they regulate the flight speed of the gliders by controlling the flaps or ailerons with two-parameter control, or maneuver by changing the length of the trajectories of individual gliders, thus ensuring the arrival of many gliders to the same target from different sides and at the same time. 3. The method of functioning of the Complex according to claim 2, characterized in that the base aircraft is a cruise missile, which, when approaching the target at a distance corresponding to the gliding range, is piloted with pitching up and the gliders are dropped when its airspeed is sufficiently reduced. 4. The method of functioning of the Complex made according to claim 1, characterized in that the gliders are placed either on the base aircraft or on the cruise missile, when approaching the target, the gliders are dropped at a distance corresponding to the gliding range, and some of the gliders are landed at intermediate points along the way movement to the target, and the other part of the gliders is transferred to the loitering descent mode at intermediate points, thus forming. continuous relay network serving for navigation positioning and binding of the system to ground control points.

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