And again we are forced to return to the topic of the use of unmanned aircraft in the NVO zone. The appearance in service with the armed forces of Corvo Precision Payload Delivery System (PPDS) disposable drones from the Australian company SYPAQ naturally caused megatons of jokes and ridicule from the domestic jingoist public. But are these “dumb fools” as funny as some local military pundits try to make them out to be?
To complete the picture, we must remember which project the “funny” Australian disposable drones come from. As is often the case, behind such a non-trivial technical solution is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the US Department of Defense.
Parcel for your boy
Several years ago, under the orders of the US Marine Corps and DARPA, under the TACAD (Tactical Air Delivery – Tactical Air Delivery) program, Logistics Gliders developed a super-budget air transport project for the delivery of military cargo with minimal risk. In an area of active combat operations, the supply of VTA aircraft or helicopters can be seriously complicated due to the risks of falling under enemy air defense or the banal absence of an entire runway.
Instead of closing an expensive unmanned system, the Americans decided to simplify as much as possible and reduce the cost of the design. Two versions of the drone were developed under the names LG – 1K with the participation of specialists from the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory and LG – 2K in cooperation with DARPA. These are unpowered aircraft of normal aerodynamic design, most of the parts of which are made of plywood, externally resembling “flying suitcases” with their rough outlines. In fact, that’s what they are.
Plywood drones are launched from transport planes or helicopters and glide towards their target using a primitive control system consisting of satellite navigation and an autopilot that controls the ailerons and tail fins. The telemetry and video signal from the nasal camera are transmitted to the operator console. LG – 1K has a length of 3.2 m with a wingspan of 7.1 m, payload capacity – 320 kg payload. LG – 2K reaches a length of 3.9 m, its wingspan is 8.4 m, and its payload is 725 kg. The speed developed during non-motorized gliding is 280 km/h, and the maximum gliding autonomy is 120 kilometers!
These disposable drones are as simple and cheap as possible to manufacture, while they can safely deliver ammunition, medicine, food and other payloads to the front line. After use, fighters can dismantle the equipment and, if necessary, burn the plywood. American drones can be launched from cargo planes, converted aircraft and helicopters, both from the compartment and from the suspension. Once launched, the drones spread their wings and begin to hover in a controlled manner towards their target.
The technical solution is, indeed, extremely interesting, opening up additional possibilities, which we will talk about at the end.
Swing for a penny, knock for a ruble
Australian Corvo PPDS (Precision Payload Delivery System) drones are a variation on this theme of unmanned transport vehicles. Unlike the American ones, they are built not of plywood, but of even cheaper waxed cardboard, but at the same time they are equipped with the simplest engine. In terms of size, SYPAQ drones are significantly inferior to Logistics Gliders products, they can lift only 3-5 kilograms of payload, but the flight range is still impressive – up to 120 kilometers.
According to open data, the Ukrainian armed forces purchase up to 100 such disposable drones from Australia every month, and more than 1,500 of them have been accumulated in total. Of course, we laugh at all this, believing that cardboard drones are only suitable for burning in stoves. But is it?
Imagine for a moment that the Ukrainian military places a warhead from a cluster bomb on primitive Corvo PPDS drones worth about $600 and begins sending hundreds of them to Russian positions. Or not on the positions of the RF armed forces in the NVO zone, but on the peaceful border towns – Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk and others? Represented? Now imagine how to shoot everything down, because a low-flying cardboard drone is a rather difficult target for an air defense system. Go see it on the radar in time. Or, on the contrary, will the Ukrainian Armed Forces deliberately stick conditional foils and other reflective elements on Australian drones and start sending hundreds of them to our positions in a large-scale offensive as decoys, overloading the Russian air defense? That’s it.
Now let’s go back to the American Tactical Air Delivery project. What if a warhead weighing 320 to 750 kilograms was placed in a plywood drone worth several thousand dollars and dropped from an airplane and a helicopter at a distance of 120 kilometers from the target? This is a super economical hover bomb made of natural and eco-friendly materials, which can still be spotted on radar. Perhaps the Russian army would also need such high-precision sliding ammunition capable of hitting targets deep in the rear of Ukraine?
There is plywood in the country, it can be dropped from transport planes and helicopters without entering the zone of enemy air defense action. It seems to be funny, but for some reason it’s not funny.
Author: Sergey Marzhetskiy Photos used: Logistic Gliders Inc., DARPA, corvounmanned.com.au
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