Recently, the US media reported that the Advanced Research Projects Agency under the US Department of Defense is secretly developing an X-type UAV without flaps, ailerons and tail rudders, which will help improve the stealth ability of the aircraft and reduce flight resistance, and the aircraft has entered the wind tunnel stage and is expected to achieve its first flight as soon as 2025. Judging from the X-type UAV wind tunnel test model released by the Advanced Research Projects Bureau, this so-called X-type UAV is very similar to the latest reconnaissance-7 large unmanned reconnaissance aircraft in recent years in our military, but it looks fatter in appearance.
In fact, the United States chose to develop a new generation of large X-type unmanned reconnaissance aircraft system at this time, which is likely to be used to replace the Global Hawk strategic UAV, which has been in service for many years.
With the change of war mode in the 90s of last century and the successive launch of various reconnaissance satellites, although the earth observation and reconnaissance capabilities have been greatly expanded, at the same time, due to special reasons such as geographical conditions and meteorological conditions, reconnaissance satellites still cannot completely replace the various reconnaissance aircraft systems that have always existed. So in the 90s of the last century, the United States began to secretly develop a new large-scale strategic UAV reconnaissance system - RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, in order to meet the strategic reconnaissance needs of the Global Hawk UAV, the UAV deliberately uses a straight wing + turbofan power design with high lift characteristics, This also makes its maximum ceiling as high as 21,000 meters, almost all air defense missiles in the world at that time can not intercept aircraft at this altitude; and the Global Hawk UAV in addition to the high ceiling, thanks to its high-lift straight wing + turbofan power design, its maximum flight range exceeds 26,000 meters, truly realizing global strategic reconnaissance.
However, on June 20, 2019, the Global Hawk strategic reconnaissance aircraft, which claimed to never be able to be shot down, was shot down by a domestic "Thunder" air defense missile launched by Iran during a reconnaissance mission, and the myth of the Global Hawk never falling was completely shattered. In addition, a number of advanced unmanned aerial reconnaissance systems secretly developed by the United States in recent years have been shot down by various types of anti-aircraft missiles launched by Iran, including the RQ-170A flying wing unmanned reconnaissance aircraft with stealth performance, all of which have been shot down by Iran-launched anti-aircraft missiles.
Therefore, for the US military, although the resolution of the newly launched reconnaissance satellites has become higher and higher, it still needs high-altitude unmanned reconnaissance aircraft with long endurance to perform some special reconnaissance missions. But now a generation of divine aircraft, the Global Hawk UAV with global strategic reconnaissance, has been shot down, and the RQ-170A unmanned reconnaissance aircraft with stealth design has also been shot down. Among the two unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, although the Global Hawk UAV has a long range and high ceiling, the straight wing design also makes the maneuverability poor, and if it encounters enemy fighters or missile interception, there is basically no possibility of escape; Although the RQ-170A UAV has stealth capabilities, the flying wing aerodynamic layout also makes its flight speed slower, and it is also difficult to escape after being discovered.
Therefore, under the strong demand for the development of a new generation of strategic reconnaissance aircraft, what airfoil type to use has become the biggest problem encountered by the United States, and the continued use of straight wing, flying wing aerodynamic layout is slow and poor maneuverability can no longer be used; Although the small-sized wing has good maneuverability and low flight resistance, it is not lifted enough to fly long distances at thin altitudes.
Therefore, at this time, the Chinese Air Force has been in service with the Wuzheng-7 large unmanned reconnaissance aircraft to give it a great reference, which adopts the "diamond wing" + V-shaped structure, which can not only achieve high lift characteristics similar to ultra-long straight wings to meet its long-endurance high-altitude flight needs, while the diamond wing design enhances the strength of the wing structure, but also has high lift characteristics and strong maneuverability, small flight resistance advantages, and the diamond wing design compared to other airfoils, shorter wingspan also makes it reduce the weight of the structure at the same time. It can significantly reduce the standard of take-off and landing runways, and enhance its demand for take-off and landing of larger and lower standard runways.
In fact, the United States has blatantly copied the relevant technology of Chinese military aircraft, not once or twice, and since a few years ago, China has begun to surpass the United States in many advanced military fields. For example, the United States is the first country in the world to test hypersonic missiles, but China is the first country in the world to mass-serve hypersonic missiles, and from a technical point of view, China's Dongfeng-17 adopts rocket booster + glide extended range design, which is completely different from the rocket booster + scramjet tested earlier in the United States;
The United States was the first to test electromagnetic gun systems, but China is the first country in the world to achieve sea tests of electromagnetic guns and may be the first to mass equip them. And in the field of electromagnetic guns, although the United States started early, but repeatedly burned the track during the test and suspended for a period of time, but in the earlier officially announced military industry leak incident, there was evidence to confirm that after China's successful test of electromagnetic gun system, the military personnel responsible for the development and testing of domestic electromagnetic guns secretly leaked relevant advanced technologies to the United States, and the United States also suddenly succeeded in testing the following year.
And such examples of military industry overtaking have been countless in recent years, and even many new weapons and equipment developed by the United States in recent years can "find prototypes" in China's active weapons and equipment that have been mass-serviced and put into service. For example, Boeing's newly announced sixth-generation fighter prototype FA-XX is very similar to the aerodynamic layout of our military's active J-20; The AGM-183A hypersonic missile publicly tested by Lockheed Martin is very similar to China's DF-17 hypersonic missile; The AIM-260 ultra-long-range air-to-air missile being developed by Raytheon openly copied the Thunderbolt-15 ultra-long-range air-to-air missile already in service in China, and so on.