After the official opening of the 13th Zhuhai Air Show, media and military enthusiasts flocked to focus their lenses and eyes on all kinds of military equipment. Continental unveiled a number of aviation equipment at the Zhuhai Air Show. Among them, the appearance of the Rainbow Six UAV has attracted a lot of attention and speculation.
The Rainbow Six large twin-engine unmanned aerial system is the latest derivative of the Rainbow series. Its positioning and technical characteristics are mainly high-altitude, high-speed, long-endurance, and can carry out a variety of operations. Different from the reconnaissance integrated UAV launched by AVIC in the past, this time Rainbow Six launched two versions. The first is the reconnaissance type, which mainly attacks maritime anti-submarine, patrol and long-range early warning detection; The second is the reconnaissance type, which mainly attacks high-altitude reconnaissance strikes and close-range air support. It can be said that it is a specialized field. It is 15 meters long, with a wingspan of 20.5 meters and a height of 8 meters; it has a maximum horizontal flight speed of 800 kilometers, a cruising speed of 500 to 700 kilometers, a maximum ceiling of 12 kilometers, and a cruising altitude of 10 kilometers.
From the appearance point of view, compared with the previous Rainbow V drone, the overall layout of Rainbow Six appears smoother. The most obvious point is that the nose thermal reserve compartment has a smaller bulge than the Rainbow-5, replaced by a smoother configuration. In terms of wings, Rainbow Six adopts a design with a large aspect ratio straight wing and a small angle wing, which reduces the induced drag generated during flight. This increases the maneuverability of the aircraft and increases the subsonic range. In addition, it reduces the roll distance of the drone during takeoff and landing.
The wing ends of the Rainbow Six have wings commonly used in civil aircraft. The installation method should be direct installation, and the shape should be the upper and lower wing structure layout. The role of winglets is to effectively reduce the drag and fuel consumption of the aircraft during flight, and increase the cruising time and range. The rear end of the Rainbow Six fuselage is equipped with a T-shaped tail. The horizontal tail is raised in a T-shaped tail layout, which effectively reduces the aerodynamic interference of the wing wake, improves the efficiency of horizontal tail control, and also reduces the load of the aircraft to a certain extent. Structural weight. In addition, coupled with the redundancy technology of the flight control system, the combination of the two effectively guarantees the flight reliability and safety of the Rainbow Six.
Regarding the powertrain, Rainbow Six can be said to have introduced a new major change. It changed the piston engine equipped with the rainbow series UAV in the past and replaced it with two new turbofan engines, which greatly improved the endurance of the aircraft. Increase in magnitude.
Take the Rainbow Six reconnaissance version as an example. Although the aircraft's cruising time is not as good as the Rainbow V (more than 40 hours), it is only a short 20 hours. But its maximum range of more than 12,000 kilometers and cruising speed in the range of 500 to 700 kilometers are better than the maximum range of 650 kilometers and cruising speed in the range of 180 to 220 kilometers of Rainbow V. In addition, the Rainbow Six turbofan engine was installed above the rear of the fuselage instead of the previous tail. This makes efficient use of the space inside the fuselage, increasing the aircraft's maximum fuel load to 3.42 tons.
In terms of attacks, the Rainbow Six Inspection Attack Edition has doubled compared to the Rainbow Five to 2 tons. The result is a sacrifice of endurance (5 hours), maximum range (45 km) and maximum fuel capacity (1.72 tons).
Regarding the choice of ammunition, it is necessary to mention the famous AR series of surface-to-air missiles. For example, the AR-1 laser semi-active anti-tank missile weighs only more than 40 kilograms, which is lighter than the American-made "Helfa" heavy anti-tank missile. Although it is lightweight, its hit accuracy and damage effect are not reduced in the slightest. In addition, the AR-1 has developed AR-1A rockets with weighted warheads and low-smoke engines, AR-1C rockets that use infrared guidance to reach all-weather targets, AT-1D rockets using television seekers, and the use of warheads to attack tanks, tanks, and other targets, similar to sub-models such as AR-1L missiles.
The technical features of the AR-2 air-to-surface missile defense system are low cost, miniaturization of ammunition and large number of payloads. His dead weight is only 20 kilograms. INS+ laser semi-active, GPS/INS+ laser strapdown, infrared imaging, TV finder and other guidance methods are adopted, and the hit accuracy is doubled. It is especially lethal when attacking targets such as light vehicles and ground armor. In addition, due to miniaturization, when using composite pylons, it is possible to carry 4 AR-2s at the same time, which improves the durability of UAV firepower.
The Air-4 air-to-surface missile weighs 80 kg and has a warhead of 40 kg and a range of up to 20 km. The guidance method adopts a modular design, and can be equipped with infrared seeker, TV seeker, millimeter-wave radar seeker, etc. according to different combat missions. The targets of attack are mainly heavily armored targets, fortifications, buildings, etc. In addition, the missile can project at an altitude of 7,000 meters, which is much higher than the launch altitude of short-range surface-to-air missiles, thereby increasing the survival rate of UAVs on the battlefield. Therefore, after the launch of the projectile, it was well received by foreign customers because of its high combat cost efficiency, good reliability and high safety.
The emergence of Rainbow Six has allowed Mainland to achieve further technological growth in the field of UAVs. The two versions introduced can maximize the effectiveness of the aircraft depending on the combat mission. In addition, due to the wide acclaim of the Rainbow series of UAVs, the sales and market share of the Rainbow Six will bring unprecedented growth.
It is worth mentioning that the huge bomb load of the Rainbow Six, combined with the AR series of surface-to-air missiles, further enhances the aircraft's ground strike capability. For those countries with weaker air forces, this gives asymmetric air combat capabilities, allowing more options. From this point of view, this is not a blessing.