UAVs in Russian Armed Forces: News #2

There are Kornet variants with HE and thermobaric warheads and ranges up to 10 km, that is the equivalent of hellfires used by US drones and basically a flexible choice weapon for such a platform

Kornet-EMs range in the HE version is 10km fired from the ground and that is powered all the way range because it can engage targets at 10km altitude and is supersonic, so such a missile launched from an altitude of 4km or higher should be able to manage a flight range of 15km or more in my opinion fairly easily... the question would be targeting accuracy and identifying the target at that range.

What are they prepared to fit into a drone in terms of MMW radar and new model thermal sensors for long range detection...

you want a light cheap weapon which is not overkill against most targets but still capable enough.

Which is why I was speculating Bulat... it would not need 1.2m armour penetration performance and air launched from 5km altitude should give 10km flight range and the Kornet EM shows it can detect and target things at this distance with this control and guidance system.

A front and rear mounted HE payload could be quite potent for most targets like vehicles and accuracy would be excellent and you can carry four in the space of one Kornet by the look of things on ground vehicles.

If it was Kornet being launched, then the impact scene afterwards has to be something else, because Kornet is a beamrider with no after-launch pre-aiming possible. As soon as the missile launches, it needs to see the laser beam emitted from the optical system in order to be guided, from the impact scene, with that angle of the missile in relation to the drone, it wouldn't have been able to receive guidance, Kornet would have to be launched with the drone heading in a straight line and maintaining a straight line for the Kornet rear sensors to ride the beam. For example, if the drone was heading perfect north, and saw a target perfect east, a Kornet could not be launched and sent towards the target without the Orion changing course for east. You can see it in the Ka-50/52, the pylons for Vikhr are articulated so that the back seekers can easily capture the laser beam.

Except that the laser beam is controlled by the fire control system and can be pointed anywhere... for instance flying at 10km altitude and a target appears 10km ahead if you fire standard Kornet the missile will immediately detect the beam is pointing down at a 45 degree angle and dive at a similar angle to manouver itself into the beam... yet as the missile dives on its target the UAV will be flying forward and it will close distance to the target so the missile will not be flying at a fixed 45 degree dive angle to the target over time the missile will "climb" to stay in the centre of the beam as the UAV gets closer and closer to the target.

Pretending the missile and the UAV flew at the same speed then the missile would hit the target near vertical as the UAV flew over it with its laser beam pointing vertically downwards.

The point is that the fire control system directs the beam... in the ground launched version the laser auto tracks the target and often aims a few metres above the target so the flight of the missile is above bushes and trees and cables or fences and only drops the beam down onto the target when the missile gets to 1km from the target for the hit.

With that being the case the drone lasing the target to get range and even coordinates of the target in relation to the drone (ie range and also angles to the target from the laser rangefinder can be used to calculate its GPS location easily enough) the laser beam could start out pointing straight forward... but we are not talking about a normal laser beam it is more a laser field... essentially it is four laser beams of different colours all pointing in parallel... say blue top left, yellow top right, green bottom left and red bottom right... so when these beams are pointed in a direction the missile looking back will see a colour or a colour combination... say it sees yellow then it knows it is flying high and to the right of the target so it works out for itself to descend and turn left to move closer to the centre of the beams... as it descends it starts to see green and stops descending but does not see blue or green so it turns left harder... and when it sees all the colours it knows it is in the centre of the beam so it straightens up... the target might be stationary or it might be moving so the beam might be static or moving...

The point is that launched forward the beam can be used to direct the missile even at targets beside the platform... it would cost a bit in range but not as much as it would for an AAM because the ATGMs have sustainer rocket motors that burn all the way to the target... after being blown from the launch tube they often speed up quite a bit when their sustainer lights up to carry them to the target... the opposite to an AAM whose first rocket blast is supposed to accelerate them to max speed and then they coast to the target.

Of course it would always be easier to turn the drone towards the target to launch the missile but not essential and the ability to steer the beam means you can create a flight profile for the missile and achieve a near vertical dive on the target if you wish...

MHO it's either just Kornet being launched with Kh-50 impact footage, or the launch and impact of another missile, likely with close lineage and design to Kh-50 or LMUR.

Sadly editors and news people who put together videos will accept any old impact footage if they don't get any from the source showing the launch... the western video of the Russian Father of All Bombs often depicted an American Daisy cutter bomb being rolled out the back of a C-130 transport plane despite mentioning in the article it was being dropped by a Tu-160 which is a totally different type of aircraft.... didn't stop them though.

EDIT: Maybe it could also be a guided S-8 or such type missile in a single canister. That would be a very cheap and effective option.

Very true... normally S-8 and S-13 rockets burn quite a distance in front of their launch tubes as they accelerate to a decent speed to try to achieve a flat trajectory for accuracy, but a guided rocket could give up some speed for payload and use trajectory correction to achieve accuracy at range... that would be a very useful weapon... the S-8 comes in 20 shot pods for helicopters and aircraft, but also smaller 7 shot pods for light aircraft... this would be ideal... though the new flat launch pods could be used too... from that angle and the blurring we can't really tell if the launcher is round or rectangular....

All very exciting.

For instance, the Ka-50/52's Vikhr pylons depress by some 11 degrees to take aircraft pitch out of the equation.

The depression of the Vikhrs pylons is nothing to do with the guidance system and more to do with the very high speed of the missile meaning being able to point the missile directly at the target for launch means it will hit it... without angling the pylons at the target the speed of the missile will make it difficult for the missile to then turn in time to hit the target before it blows past it.

The Vikhr is a very interesting weapon with two control fins... it makes it cheaper but also effects its ability to steer sharply.

Its high speed means it copes with high speed targets quite nicely but its agility is not great... so it is a bit like a bullet in that if you point the missile in a lead shot where the target is going to be your chances of a kill are excellent because the high speed of the missile gives the target little chance to change direction or speed to evade the attack.

The average flight speed of Vikhr is something like 610m/s or just under mach 2.

Not supersonic but highly subsonic, but agree on most of the rest.

350m/s average flight speed makes it supersonic, and fired from 5km altitude it will probably move a bit faster... with a gravity assist.

Bulat being slimmer and a similar length with a smaller lighter warheads should be faster but with shorter range of perhaps 5-7km.

Big drones do have radars. Imagine the Helios-RLC flying high over say Idlib or the Syrian desert. Pinpointing every terrorist movement and issuing it to the closest UCAV on station. Terrifying on one hand, but so is the power of state unless it is used in a legitimate way.

What I am trying to get across is that you start putting the super expensive stuff that goes into modern attack helos and they are not going to be so cheap any more... more radars and sensors means more power requirements which reduces range performance and fuel economy etc etc, so you don't fit it to everything...

Was thinking of that too, would be more than enough most of the time, but that depends ultimately on how many UCAVs are on station simultaneously and therefore what kind of targets are taken on. Two canisters like those on the Epokha RWS would mean 16 missiles ready for use. Or one of those and one container for laser guided rockets. That is a lot of punch.

They already have the retractable launcher for Tigr and the new model BMPs that can carry four Kornet-EM missiles or 8 Bulats... they could be fuselage mounts with the optics incorporated in a ball turret that does not retract... that would eliminate the effect of the system in terms of drag, which is important for a long endurance platform.

The new rocket pod designs are box shaped too so retractable versions of those along the lower fuselage body?

They could make it of a similar design so it can rotate horizontally too.... those box rocket launchers are a standard size so you could lower the systems on the ground and fit the calibre rocket pod or missile type you want (Kornet or Bulat) depending on the expected target type... firing at a 20 degree off angle with 122mm rocket pods could avoid damage to tail or ball optics further forward on the platform.

Many targets like fuel trucks could be engaged with laser homing 57mm rockets...

But of course it is easy to over arm this thing... perhaps have a looker and watcher and a separate attack model armed to the teeth. The L&W could have say two packs of Kornet launchers which means 8 to 16 laser guided missiles, while the attacker could be covered in weapons.

The irony is that the competition to the Su-25 was the Il-102 which had bomb bays inside the wings and external pylons for rocket pods... it was a much bigger heavier aircraft with a planned payload of about 7 tons like the A-10, though it did have a tail gunner too.

Retractable missile and rocket weapons would combine good fire power with low drag and stealth the wings were not thick enough for Kornet launchers with quad missiles but one rocket pod could fit in the rather thick wing that held what looked like 250kg bombs... so having a dozen rocket pods distributed along each wing as well as few bombs and a large calibre forward firing cannon (they mentioned a 45mm smoothbore... which presumably lost to the 57mm grenade launcher for new BMP gun) and 23mm rear firing weapon with a gunner....

With modern drones it become redundant.

But the advantage is that it is rocket powered inside enemy territory.

I would add a HEAT warhead for opportunity target when it needs to be destroyed. It basically work for few minutes and then stop working.

They have been showing the E-90 drone for the Smerch rocket system for years now... it is essentially a drone rocket that can be launched in a direction there is no drone coverage for... the drone itself has a simple pulse detonation engine like the one used on the V-2 buzz bomb... very simple like a venetian blind where fuel is added into a cavity and detonated the explosion blows the venetian blind structure facing forward shut so the explosion gas blows out the rear providing a small pulse forward... the blinds are flicked open and air flows in to the cavity and fuel is added and detonated again... it makes a buzz sound as there are hundreds of explosions per second... a very simple and reasonably efficient jet engine that is quick and easy and cheap to make.

They have another target drone family called dan that has one with a jet engine (tubrofan) and one with a pulse jet... both have similar speed but the pulse jet is much much cheaper and is used in expendable drones that are destroyed in use as targets for air defence systems.

From Bastion, Kornet-E is 250 m/s average flight speed. I have never read Kornet is supersonic.

Dude.... Konkurs tows a wire and its average flight speed is about 210m/s... do you honestly think a beam rider is only 40m/s average faster?

Yeah even the low ballistics 57 mm cannon may be interesting to test onboard a drone too. The HE grenades would be perfect to attack targets under cover, maybe an autoloader like the one in Epokha would do too, but this of course would need major fuselage modifications or an "A-10-like" UCAV built around a cannon. Why not? It would bring massive firepower for a relatively small weapons system. On smaller drones, a sniper version could make sense too.

The 57mm grenade launcher seems to have a very very high velocity APFSDS round which would have better penetration than the A-10s 30mm cannon probably out to much greater ranges...

And recoil would be interesting if it was able to point almost vertically downwards or was mounted in a turret pointing backwards that could be lowered to 45 degrees perhaps for firing.

A 40mm grenade launcher would be interesting because there is no shell case and a linkless belt feed system could be developed with a turret mounted weapon.

Accuracy and rate of fire would make up for the small payload in each grenade but a burst could shower an area in fragments very quickly...

In 2021, the Ministry of Defense of Russia will receive up to seven unmanned systems "Inokhodets"

bmpd
February 27th, 15:35

According to the Department of Information and Mass Communications of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, on February 26, 2021, the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, General of the Army Sergei Shoigu, checked the fulfillment of the state defense order at the enterprise JSC Kronshtadt (Moscow), where a full production cycle for the creation of unmanned aircraft systems operates.

The head of the military department was shown the process of manufacturing composite parts for airframes for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), assembling finished products, as well as a ground control point for UAVs.

Industry representatives also showed Sergei Shoigu an aerial reconnaissance complex with a long-duration UAV with the ability to perform reconnaissance and strike missions "Inokhodets", a promising high-speed attack UAV "Grom", a reconnaissance and strike UAV "Inokhodets-RU" and a radar surveillance apparatus "Helios-RLD ", As well as a number of UAVs, which are under scheduled maintenance after combat use in Syria, in particular the "Inokhodets" UAV.

“Today we will discuss the state and prospects for the development of Russian unmanned aircraft, we will determine measures to increase the pace of equipping the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation with such aircraft,” the Minister of Defense said at a meeting following his visit to the enterprise.

It was also reported that in 2021, Kronshtadt JSC will supply the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation with seven complexes with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) "Inokhodets". Sergei Bogatikov, General Director of Kronshtadt JSC, reported this to the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, General of the Army Sergei Shoigu, who visited the Moscow site of the enterprise.

To the question of the head of the military department - how many complexes will you supply in 2021? - Sergei Bogatikov answered "6-7". Each complex includes three unmanned aerial vehicles.

The Minister of Defense demanded to increase the production of UAVs. According to the General Director of Kronshtadt JSC, the enterprise plans to launch a serial plant in 2021.


For reference:

JSC "Kronstadt" is an enterprise of a full production cycle for the creation of UAVs from their design to testing and certification. Since its inception in 1991, the enterprise (formerly ZAO Transas) has specialized in the development of on-board, ground and sea systems, military equipment simulators and interactive complexes.

On the part of bmpd, we recall that the creation of the Orion multipurpose (reconnaissance and strike) unmanned aerial vehicle of medium altitude and long flight duration (MALE class) was carried out within the framework of the ROC "Inokhodets" under a contract with the Ministry of Defense of Russia, which is now part of AFK Sistema "The Kronstadt Group." The Ministry of Defense of Russia is used to refer to the UAV as the designation ROC - "pacer".

The contract for the creation of the UAS SD (Medium-Range Unmanned Aviation Complex) for the ROC "Inokhodets" was awarded on a competitive basis by the Ministry of Defense of Russia on October 14, 2011 to the company "Transas" (which then underwent reorganization and received the name "Kronshtadt", and in 2016 entered into AFK Sistema), which proposed the Orion project (Product 90). "Orion" ("Pacing") is partly the Russian analogue of the American General Atomics MQ-1 Predator UAV and has a similar appearance to the American device.
UAV "Orion" ("Pacing") has a maximum takeoff weight of 1000 kg and a payload weight of up to 200 kg. The length of the apparatus is 8 m, the wingspan is 16 m, the flight duration is 24 hours. The prototypes of the UAV are equipped with a Rotax 914 engine with a power of 86 kW (115 hp), equipped with a turbocharger to increase the altitude. The two-bladed AV-115 propeller with a diameter of 1.9 meters is manufactured by Aerosila. For serial production of UAVs, the Agat company, in cooperation with TsIAM, is developing the Russian APD-110/120 engine.

Flight tests of the first prototype of the Orion UAV (tail number 01) began in May 2016. UAV flight tests are carried outat the flight test base of the Kronshtadt company, organized at the Protasovo airfield in the Ryazan region. By the beginning of 2020, several prototypes of the Orion (Pacer) UAV had been built, which were also tested since 2018 by combat use in Syria. It is known that during the UAV tests at least two prototypes were lost.

In August 2019, at the MAKS-2019 air show, the general director of the Kronshtadt company, Sergei Bogatikov, said that serial production of the Orion UAV had begun. The first serial complex of the UAV "Orion" ("Paceman") (ground control station and three vehicles) was transferred toTo the Russian Ministry of Defense for trial operation in April 2020. It was reported that serial complexes have been significantly upgraded compared to prototypes.

In August 2020, the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Kronshtadt company signed the first serial contract for the supply of long-duration unmanned aerial vehicles Orion (Pacer).
In October 2019, Nikolai Dolzhenkov, General Designer of the Kronshtadt Group, was awarded the N.V. Prize for the development of the first long-duration UAV Orion in Russia . Ogarkova.








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