Interesting concept Drone taking off from Stobar carrier apparently it is under study for a long time
From Henri K. I wouldn't surprise if type 01A or CV17 will be equipped with naval drone
The Chinese navy is in the process of studying the possibility of taking a 13-ton drone on its aircraft carriers (STOBAR), if one believes in an R & D document published by four of its researchers in May 2016 .
In this study "Reasearch on the Ski-Jump Taking off Performance for a UAV", a team from the Aeronautical and Aerospace University of the Chinese Navy conducted take-off simulations on a sky jump for a drone weighing 13,500 kg Different conditions of aircraft and carrier.
We learn for example that when the drone took off from the runway of 195 meters (200 meters in the study) of an aircraft carrier "similar to Kuznetsov", ie 16
Liaoning and soon her sistership
Type 001A , and Under a head wind of 10 m / s and a temperature of 15 ° C, a minimum T / W (Thrust-to-weight) ratio of 0.37 would be required for the take-off to proceed safely.
Other parameters that may have an impact on take-off have also been studied, such as the wind speed on the flight deck, the latitude of the aircraft carrier (variation in atmospheric density) and temperature ... etc.
This study, funded directly by the NSFC (National Natural Science Foundation of China) of the State Council, has given some recommendations "that will be used to support the upstream endowment of drones by aircraft carriers". For example, it recommends a minimum wind speed of 20 kn on deck (obtained either by vessel speed or meteorological condition) to secure the take-off of the drone, or to increase the thrust of the drone engine when the aircraft carrier Is in an area of latitude around 40 ° N.
Apart from the technical simulations, two interesting points can be noted in this study.
First, what was that drone that was used as a reference model for calculations and had a take-off weight of 13,500 kg? This figure on its mass, quite precise, does not seem to be given at random. We know for example that the drone
nEUROn has a MTOW weight 7000 kg, while the
X-47B took off at a maximum of 20,215 kg.
This Chinese naval drone cited in the study is clearly larger than the drone flying wing Sharp Sword designed by Shenyang.
As far as its use is concerned, the text highlights several possible naval drone missions, such as long-range strikes, SRI or ELINT, to support surface and submarine naval forces, as well as Coastal defense missions (??).
The second interesting point resides in the three places studied by Chinese researchers - 40 ° N 120 ° E, 35 ° N 120 ° E and 20 ° N 120 ° E. They correspond respectively to the Xingcheng Airborne Training Base, the Qingdao Naval Base where the aircraft carrier Liaoning is based today, and the Bashi Strait in the South China Sea . The latter is one of the two main egress in the Pacific Ocean for the Air Force and the Chinese Navy.
