Since the launch of the X47b in the United States, countries have launched similar drones, such as "Hunter" b, "Neuron", "Sword", Rainbow 7, etc., and now even India hastily joined this "club". On October 25, a set of pictures was exposed on the Internet showing a flying wing stealth drone sliding at high speed, which is India's swift, also known as "Death Grabber".
India has also built flying wing drones
For the swift "death-grabber", India positioned it as an unmanned stealth bomber, rather than mainly performing a single mission like other flying wing drones. However, this appearance is not a complete version of the "Deathbreaker", but only a miniature prototype that can slide and run to test flight, so its landing gear and wheels look particularly large, and the proportions are somewhat out of proportion.
The reason for the out-of-proportions is that it is only a small scale prototype
For example, on May 23, 2016, India used a rocket to send a more than 1-ton scale technology demonstrator into the air at 64.8 kilometers, and then flew at a speed of Mach 5, which is said to simulate more than 70 tons of rlv-td aircraft.
Indian aerospace aircraft scale-up prototype
The moment the ignition is fired, it will fly away in a moment
In fact, this is not the first time that swift "killers" have appeared, as early as the previous two years of air shows, India has repeatedly publicly launched a model of this flying wing drone, and even spent 8 million yuan to make a small-scale wooden prototype for high-altitude throwing and wind tunnel testing. At that time, no one took it seriously, thinking that India was just playing ppt again, but it was not expected to be serious.
Swift "Killer" unveiled at the Indian Airshow
Also made a wooden model
Swift's second appearance
According to the eletimes website, in June this year, the Indian Defense Research and Development Organization has conducted a series of low-speed, medium-speed and high-speed taxiing tests on the prototype of the UAV, and the pictures and videos exposed this time should be left at that time. According to the latest news, India is likely to let it take to the skies in the coming weeks.
This should be a photo of the slide in June this year
As mentioned earlier, it is all a scale-down prototype, so what will its full version look like? It was revealed that the full version of the swift "Deadliest" was 4 meters long, had a wingspan of 5 meters, and had a takeoff weight of about 1 ton. The current scaled prototype uses a 36mt turbofan engine of the Russian United Engine Company, and the later full version of the prototype will be replaced with the "Ruby" small turbofan engine of India's "Fearless" cruise missile, while its ceiling is 6 kilometers, the range is 200 kilometers, and the endurance time is only 1 hour. Yes, you read that right, it's an hour, and it's not much different from a toy.
Endurance time of 1 hour, is it serious?
In fact, in addition to the swift "killer", India has another "high-tech" drone project, that is, the "cat warrior" loyal wingman. At the Bangalore Airshow in March this year, India unveiled for the first time a full-size model of the "Cat Warrior" loyal wingman, with a very sci-fi design, similar in appearance to the American xq-58a, and even a side magazine that makes many countries envious of fifth-generation aircraft.
Indian cat warrior loyal wingman model
Surprisingly, shortly after the "Cat Warrior" model was on display, India made its first physical prototype, and it was one-to-one, moving fast, not at all like the previous style. Some analysts believe that India may think that it has found a "shortcut" to make the air force quickly stronger, the drone is cheap and easy to use, the manufacturing technology is not complicated, India can just take it down, and the whole flying wing design, stealth shape, and there are enough gimmicks, it is much easier to fund, so it is "planted" into it.
It was a quick time to create real guys
As everyone knows, although the threshold of drones is low, it is very difficult to play well, involving a series of real high-tech such as satellite communication systems, battlefield data links, ai artificial intelligence, etc., and even the United States has not completely done it. And India does not have much accumulation in these aspects, and may not even be able to think of it, so whether it is a swift "killer" or a "cat warrior" loyal wingman, it only has its form, but no "god".
Drones are not as simple as they seem