At the Abu Dhabi International Defense Exhibition 2011, the Italian company Otto Melera exhibited a small drone that can be launched from the main gun of the Centaur wheeled tank destroyer, a special drone launch method that aroused the curiosity of the audience. So why launch a UAV with a barrel, and how does a drone launch from a barrel, what is the difference between it and a barrel for firing an ordinary shell?
The famous Italian company Otto Melera exhibited a small drone that can be launched from the main gun of the "Centaur" wheeled tank destroyer
A new way for drones to take off - barreled artillery firing
At present, the unmanned reconnaissance aircraft of various countries are launched by professionals and using professional equipment, such as the use of ground/vehicle-mounted ejection, hand-tossed launch, etc., from the deployment of equipment in a safe area to the flight of drones over the target, it takes a lot of time, which makes traditional UAVs unable to quickly respond to missions and does not meet the needs of modern informationized warfare. Because in modern operations, the mobility, protection ability and firepower of armored combat vehicles have been qualitatively improved, and the combat mobility has increased, in the rapidly changing battlefield, in order to ensure that armored troops can obtain effective intelligence in time, it is necessary to enable unmanned reconnaissance aircraft to accompany armored troops to maneuver and be controlled by armored unit commanders to obtain first-hand information and timely use for troop command and control.
In order to meet this need, the French took the lead in exploring, they used the "Leclerc" upgraded tank for export, in order to achieve the purpose of UAV accompanying combat, a small UAV launcher was set up at the rear of the turret to carry and use a helicopter-type micro-UAV. However, this design still has major shortcomings, mainly because the external UAV launcher is easier to damage and fail in the harsh battlefield environment, and the helicopter-type UAV has a limited maximum speed and cannot quickly fly to the target area for reconnaissance, so this design scheme has not been promoted.
The artillery-launched UAV program designed by Otto Melera can be said to be an innovative new way of UAV takeoff, which can better meet the needs of accompanying the use of armored forces.
UAV launched by the Centaurus tank destroyer, which uses a collapsible wing combination in a canard layout
First of all, the artillery firing method can give the UAV a large muzzle velocity and correct flight direction, can fly to the suspicious area in a short time for reconnaissance, and timely provide commanders with battlefield intelligence to carry out appropriate combat operations.
Secondly, because the UAV is usually stored inside the combat vehicle, it is protected by the main armor, it is not easy to be damaged by battlefield fire, and it is also convenient for the crew to check it to maintain its technical performance.
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Technical characteristics of artillery-launched UAVs
The principle of barreled artillery launching drones is similar to that of barreled artillery firing ordinary shells. When a barreled artillery fires a shell, it uses a large amount of propellant to burn rapidly, produce a large amount of high-pressure gas, and push the projectile out of the chamber. The difference is that ordinary tank shells are usually projectiles and firing cartridges combined to form a whole shell, while barrel artillery launching UAVs, in fact, is equivalent to a very low-grade artillery missile, UAVs and special launcher cartridges are separate, when used, still like ordinary shells from the tail of the gun to load. In order to launch from a modern tank gun with high bore pressure and high muzzle velocity, artillery-launched UAVs must be specially designed to significantly differ from traditional UAV schemes.
First of all, in order to adapt to the huge impact generated by the firing of artillery, the body structure of the artillery-launched UAV must be strengthened, and at the same time, various equipment on it must be reinforced to prevent damage when starting in the chamber, especially the lens and gimbal of optical reconnaissance instruments must be maintained locked until the UAV enters the cruising state to unlock. Even so, artillery-launched UAVs cannot withstand full-charge fire similar to shells, and must be ejected with appropriate reduced-charge low-pressure launch cartridges.
The artillery-launched drones designed by Otto Melera are single-use and cannot be recycled and reused like traditional drones
Secondly, the artillery UAV must be suitable for passing through the circular breech and have a large airfoil to maintain cruise flight. It is a combination of a simple cylindrical body and folding wings that can only be used for artillery UAVs. Taking the artillery-launched UAV scheme designed by Otto Melera as an example, it adopts a collapsible wing combination of canard layout, a pair of slender canards with a large aspect ratio are located behind the nose engine, and are deployed forward after launch, in addition to generating a certain lift, mainly used to control pitch and roll; A pair of large aspect ratio wings with forward swept angles are located behind the fuselage, which are deployed rearward after launch to generate cruising lift; A large downward unfolding triangular vertical stabilizer, mainly used to stabilize the course.
Finally, due to strict restrictions on size and weight, the artillery-launched UAV designed by Otto Melera is disposable and cannot be recycled and reused like traditional UAVs, in fact, the front-line armored forces in a combat marching state do not have the extra manpower and material resources to support the recovery of this small tactical UAV. Although this will bring a certain increase in cost, in general, it is more conducive to mobile combat of armored forces.