Chinese UAV/UCAV development
- Thread starter AssassinsMace
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The traits of the TB0D seem like a fit for the first steps towards practical ABL (Airborne Laser):
- Excess power generation
- Large payload capacity
- Unmanned turboprop with large wingspan, allowing for very long loiter times
Eh, you'll be hard pressed to fit even a 100kw class laser in one of those, once you add in the heavy cargo range/endurance would drop off a cliff.
The UAV is designed for heavy cargo and still stated to have "long-endurance". It wouldn't be very long-endurance if carrying it's stated maximum payload of 1.5 tons decreases it's endurance to the point that it's no longer considered long-endurance. At the end of the day, it still has high-aspect ratio wings and turbo-props - both are good for maintaining endurance.
I also thought it perhaps needed significantly more payload capacity to carry an ABL, so I looked and saw the US YAL-1 laser weighted 55 kg/kW, but that was using chemical-lasers which are much heavier than electric lasers. AFAIK at that point other types of lasers weren't mature enough and so couldn't be adopted, the intervening 2 decades may have changed that. The US MDA seemed to think so given they were targeting for "2 kg/kW, which would make a one-megawatt weight 5,000 pounds" a few years back.
Don't think the efficiency increase has been quite that extreme yet, but we've definitely been seeing some efficiency gains. Let's also not forget ABL consists of more than just ballistic missile interception. There's some level of consideration for an eventual 100-kW laser on the F-35 to intercept incoming missiles - which tells us that 100 kW can intercept non-ballistic missiles. Whether the F-35 would actually get a laser is another matter entirely. MDA has also been looking at a low-altitude UAV ABL intercepting normal missiles / UAVs too. The chinese Silent Killer system sold to Saudi Arabia has also been successfully intercepting Houthi drone / rockets and that uses a 30-kW laser. So we're starting to see practical laser defense systems creeping in.
All in all, that's why I said "fit for the first steps towards practical ABL" and not "fit for practical ABL".
The pulling force of propeller is function of its RPM and diameter, however propeller has limitation of RPM and diameter which must be lower than a point to prevent the tips go supersonic. If the limit is reached, the only way to increase force is to have more propeller/engines. The alternative is to use turbofan engines but they are fuel inefficient compared to propeller engines.
So in the end, for low speed low altitude UAV 4 propeller configuration may be more efficient than you think.
This choice has nothing to do with UAV either, just look at the large propeller powered cargo aircraft like C-130, A-400 and Y-8/9.
BTW, this UAV is not small in its own class.
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Target drones.
What are these drones?
SinoSoldier
Colonel
The left is something new, or a redesigned version of the CH-7. The right is the Cloud Shadow drone.
The conventional global hawk esque shaped UAV is Wing Loong-10 also known as Cloud Shadow.
The flying wing UAV may be new, it looks slightly different from the Tianying flying wing UAV we've seen before which was a similar size but had a continuous leading edge.
It looks like a slightly upsized Cloud Shadow-550T UAV
Neither of them are that exciting.
Obviously the Cloud Shadow itself is not new.
And for the flying wing, well we've seen similar sized flying wing UAVs before, and it is really too small to be that interesting beyond something that's RQ-170 level at best.
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