Warship of Great Power

Conformal antenna technology is very important, but it is not easy to break through. Among other things, vibrations during flight may affect the antenna. If skin resonance causes the T/R component to change its position, even if it is only a small change. , may also cause detection errors.

Therefore, technical inspection is very important and must be carried out on an airplane. Qin Tao just didn't expect that a drone was actually modified here for inspection!

"Where is the drone? Take me there quickly."

Seeing Qin Tao's anxious look, Commander Ouyang did not dare to delay, and immediately said: "After the drone was modified, it was tested at a domestic base for three months. It was just brought back for test flight review recently. In our laboratory."

If there were manned aircraft, other than the one in front of them that could take off and land vertically, they wouldn't be able to fly to where they 38 came. But drones were different. After removing the wings, they could be pulled over directly by trucks. .

Therefore, the drone was also modified here. After modification, it was transported to a certain airport and flown to a certain base for testing. After the test was completed, the whole process was reversed and the drone was shipped back. Their technicians perform inspections.

"Taozi, why are you in a hurry? Let's take a look at this early warning aircraft first." Wu Shengli said with a smile.

"No, Dad, that drone is more important."

No one's more important? Are you kidding me? UAVs have strong endurance and a long time in the air, but their take-off weight is limited and the payload they can carry is also small. They are simply incomparable to manned early warning aircrafts.

The modified drone has an early warning capability of more than 100 kilometers. It is mostly used to fill blind spots at low altitudes. It is incomparable to the one in front of me.

However, Wu Shengli did not insist. Since Qin Tao said he wanted to see the drone, let him go and see it while he stayed here and continued to see the drone.

"Manned ones are still too expensive. With unmanned early warning aircraft, we can sell more. Especially those places that are threatened by cruise missiles need such unmanned early warning aircraft. If the price is right, we can sell them." Send out five hundred!"

Can there be 500 early warning aircraft in the world? Of course it is impossible. The total number of early warning aircraft in the world is less than 100. Except for the US Navy, the equipment of other countries or militaries is generally in single digits. However, unmanned early warning aircraft will rewrite this history. It is conservatively estimated that there are 500 such unmanned early warning aircraft!

what does that mean? If a certain country uses Tomahawk missiles to kick down other people's doors, it will not be that easy. As long as it can fly a drone in the sky, it can detect the Tomahawk missiles flying in advance. Once it is discovered, it will be easy to handle. , setting up an ambush on the only way the Tomahawk missile must pass, a stinger can knock down the Tomahawk missile.

However, it is too difficult to put radars into the sky, and early warning aircraft are too expensive. Therefore, some weak countries are unable to find Tomahawk missiles in time. Even if there are fighter planes that can take off to search, they cannot continue to take off. Moreover, What a waste.

With drones, everything will change!

Drones are cheap to purchase and easy to operate. Just set the program and let it monitor overhead. In the past, infrared and optical detection devices were used, but now radar has been added, making them easier to use.

Qin Tao is confident that he can sell it in large quantities!

Even if it is used domestically, it is meaningful. After all, early warning aircraft are too precious and cannot be launched at any time. Using drones to undertake daily search tasks or to fill blind spots is a very good solution.

"Come on, let's go take a look now. Chief Ouyang, you can continue your work. I can go by myself."

Seeing Qin Tao's persistence, Wu Shengli said nothing and followed Qin Tao.

The laboratory is very large, like a small factory building. If the tilt-rotor aircraft is not super high, it can probably come in.

The black drone was parked in the center and connected to a nearby computer via a data cable. Several technicians in white coats were busy in front of the computer.

Qin Tao ran directly to the drone.

This is a land-based drone with a jet engine at the back, but this is not a big deal. If necessary, the jet engine can be replaced with a propeller engine at any time. The fuselage is the same anyway.

On the black fuselage, the left and right sides look different from other places. It should be the skin covered with this conformal antenna.

"Hey, who are you? Outsiders can't..." A man in a white coat saw an unknown person coming in. He was a little unhappy and wanted to stop him, but when he saw Qin Tao's face clearly, he suddenly felt happy: "Mr. Qin, are you Mr. Qin? Welcome, you are finally here!"

Do you only know Mr. Qin and not me? Wu Shengli was slightly embarrassed.

"Well, you are Mr. Wang's student Wu Hao, right? I have seen you in the team that developed the Air Police 2000." Qin Tao said, "Let me take a look at this unmanned early warning aircraft. How is its performance?"

"We have laid an X-band ultra-thin phased array radar antenna on it. There are more than 2,000 components in total. For a target with a radar reflection area of ​​0.1 square meters, it has a detection range of more than 100 kilometers, even if the target Even if you hide in the echo of ground radar, you can't escape the eyes of our radar." Wu Hao was even more excited when he heard Qin Tao call out his name, and continued to introduce it to Qin Tao.

If it is a large early warning aircraft or the Navy's Aegis battleship, they all like to use S-band. After all, it can see far and has sufficient power. However, for this UAV, the S-band antenna is too large, so X-band is more suitable. .

In military applications, X-band is a very popular radar band due to its light weight and high accuracy. Many fighter aircraft’s airborne radars deliberately choose this band, as long as there are no particularly large requirements for the search distance.

Now, with a detection range of 100 kilometers for targets of 0.1 square meters, this kind of radar is enough. Moreover, radar in this band can be easily made lighter and thinner, which meets the needs of the drones in front of us.

Hearing Qin Tao nod repeatedly: "Yes, yes, this kind of radar is very suitable for us to use. But, is the power supply of the drone enough? What about the data processing capabilities?"

An early warning aircraft not only needs a radar, but also a post-processing system. If it cannot process a massive amount of signals, it is not an early warning aircraft, but just an early warning radar.

"We increased the power of the generator." Wu Hao said: "This reduced the drone's airborne time by two hours and reduced the maximum cruising speed by 20 kilometers per hour. However, we believe that these reductions in data are all able to Accepted, as for post-processing of data, after using the latest processor, data processing is no problem, thanks to Moore's Law."

The fan-hunting early warning aircraft built by the British at that time weighed more than 100 tons, and still could not handle the huge data, and finally had to be discontinued. In the E-3 era, the core of the data processing system was IBM's CC-1 central computer. At that time, it was claimed that the storage capacity was large and the computing speed was fast. How fast was it exactly? 740,000 operations per second!

What now? The high-frequency Loongson processor has a computing power of 4GHZ, which translates to 3 billion operations per second. If it has four cores, it will be 12 billion operations.

Therefore, in front of modern processors, processing massive amounts of radar data is nothing at all, it is simply a piece of cake. This is really thanks to Moore's Law. Every 18 months, performance will double.

"No, Moore didn't come to upgrade our computers in person. If we want to thank you, we have to thank our chip R\u0026D technicians." Qin Tao said: "It is their efforts that allow us to use the world's number one chip. "

"That's right, thank them." Wu Hao nodded. Mr. Qin's words will be whatever he says. He must not go against Mr. Qin.

Compared with the boxy shell of the straight thirty, the shell of this drone is much smoother. Qin Tao stroked the shell and continued: "The position of each of these antennas is different, and the curvature is different. You are How to adjust the electromagnetic waves radiated by the antenna?”

This is the most difficult part of the conformal antenna. In fact, not to mention conformal antennas, the same is true for flat-panel antennas. Thousands of T/R components are crammed onto a flat panel, and then all the components need to be coordinated. This requires It takes a lot of time to debug, which is even more complicated than assembly.

"We invented a software, which was initially used to debug flat-panel antennas. Later, we upgraded the software to turn the flat-panel into complex shapes. Just input the surface shape of the aircraft into the computer, so that it can be automatically adjusted. It’s completely adaptive adjustment without us having to do anything.”

As computers become more and more advanced, work will become easier and easier!

Listening to these operating methods, Qin Tao nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes, you are very good!"

"It's better that our computers have better computing power, otherwise it wouldn't be so convenient. Back then, we just didn't have enough computer power, so we had to use the most primitive and stupidest way to debug."

Thinking back to the debugging that year, Wu Hao was filled with emotion. He had to use all his strength at that time, but now, everything is so easy!

However, this is nothing compared to the fact that even the largest computer in the institute back then did not have as much computing power as a desktop computer today. Times are changing and technology is advancing.

"With these technologies, it will be easy to transplant the system, right?" Qin Tao continued to ask.

"That's of course. The vertical take-off and landing early warning aircraft we built outside directly transplanted these technologies. Of course, in order to improve the detection capability, the X-band was replaced by S-band, and the size of the components became slightly larger. But you only need to modify a few parameters in the program, it’s very simple.”

Fleet-level early warning aircraft must use S-band and must have an early warning capability of at least three to four hundred kilometers to be sufficient for use.

Only then did Qin Tao think of the early warning aircraft outside again.

"Okay, then you continue to work here, and I'll go outside and take a look."

"Yes, Mr. Qin, you are welcome to continue coming here for inspections in the future."

Wu Shengli turned around and walked out without saying a word, okay, just welcome him? Am I not welcome?

Wu Hao sat down and the person next to him said: "Gong Wu, why do you see that Leader Wu's expression is a little bad?"

"No, a big leader just needs to show some flair. He is not approachable like a boss like Mr. Qin."

Wu Shengli, who was walking in front, paused for a moment, then moved faster.

Qin Tao didn't pay attention to the change in his father-in-law's mood. At this time, he had been thinking about this kind of unmanned early warning aircraft. The jet type can be placed on land or on an aircraft carrier, and the propeller type can be placed on an amphibious assault ship. In the future, we can even build unmanned tilt-rotor aircraft, which can be mounted on destroyers. If it can be used as an early warning aircraft, it will be much better than the current improved Z-18 early warning aircraft.

No one is needed to operate it, which reduces operating costs. It has a long idle time. You can go up without having to come down for a whole day. Moreover, even if you encounter danger or get shot down, you don’t have to worry about the loss of the pilot. There are many benefits!

Qin Tao had already considered this kind of unmanned early warning aircraft before, but he always thought about it and never took action. Unexpectedly, these units did it without waiting for him to arrange it!

Moreover, drones have been thoroughly played by our side for a long time. No matter how many are sold, we can avoid such drones from posing a threat to our own side, and we can definitely make money by selling them!

This is not just about selling equipment. Arms sales have always been linked to many other things. Anyone holding one's own weapons must have a stance that is inclined to their own side. Slowly, the whole world changes.

Thinking of these, Qin Tao was in a good mood.

"You kid, you seem to be in a good mood."

"Yes, Dad, our equipment continues to develop, our technology has reached the world's number one, and more and more people wear the same pants as us. Our future... Dad, your face looks wrong, are you sick?"

"You're the only one who's sick. You have to see some unmanned early warning aircraft. After watching it a few times, you feel it's boring and you want to go back again? Why bother?" Wu Shengli rolled his eyes at him.

"No, dad, the prospect of unmanned early warning aircraft..." Before Qin Tao finished speaking, he saw his father-in-law glare at him, and he could only swallow what he wanted to say.

Well, you are the father and I am the son-in-law, so why don’t I stop talking about it.

Back in the hangar, Chief Engineer Ouyang and others were still busy, so Qin Tao continued to look around casually.

Compared with other types of aircraft, the power demand of AWACS aircraft is greatly increased. This aircraft uses a self-developed AEP5000 turboprop engine with a maximum power of only 5,000 kilowatts. Can it meet the power demand of AWACS aircraft during flight?

Thinking of this, Qin Tao asked: "Does our early warning aircraft have sufficient power supply?"

"Of course." Chief Ouyang saw them coming back and immediately introduced them.

"We have added an additional generator with a power of 90 kilovolt amperes to this aircraft, which is enough for our internal power supply."

"Is the engine powerful enough?"

If it is Haipan, don’t worry. It uses an engine with more than 10,000 horsepower. The power is excessive. Adding a generator will not bring any burden. But this vertical take-off and landing tilt-rotor aircraft uses an automatic The 5,000-kilowatt AEP500 turboprop engine developed by the company should have just enough power. If it has to bear the power output of vertical take-off and landing, it may not be enough.

"Of course the engine power is sufficient." Commander Ouyang suddenly thought of something: "Mr. Qin, our early warning radar will not be turned on during takeoff and landing. It will not be turned on until the cruising altitude is reached."

This kind of aircraft consumes the most engine power during the vertical takeoff and landing phase. When taking off and landing at the maximum takeoff weight, the power is indeed just enough and not rich. However, at this time, there is no need to activate the early warning radar. The early warning aircraft has arrived. It only starts working at cruising altitude. By that time, it has transformed into an ordinary fixed-wing aircraft. During normal cruising, the engine does not need full power output and can completely use part of the power to generate electricity. Why are you afraid that the engine power is not enough?

Only then did Qin Tao realize that he was indeed worrying too much. He smiled and said: "So that's it. It seems that I am really an amateur."

"No, Mr. Qin, you are not an amateur. Take this aircraft as an example. The advice you gave is the most correct. Look at the Yankees' V-22, which has never been mature, and our aircraft only rotates the propeller. , much more mature.”

The unreliability of the V-22 does not mean that the tilt-rotor aircraft is unreliable, but the technical route is different. The Yankees choose to rotate the engine as a whole, while we only rotate the propeller. The technical difficulty is very different. The Yankees play We can easily mature those who are immature!

By the time the Americans discovered that our plan was correct and caught up again, they were already lagging behind.

Qin Tao smiled: "I just gave you random advice."

"Mr. Qin, your casual advice is equivalent to a professional level. If you give us some advice, can our technologies be transplanted to other equipment?"

"Ahem, let me just say it briefly. I think the emergence of conformal antennas is a revolution and a storm in the field of electronics. This technology can be used in many fields in the future."

Everyone was working, and Qin Tao couldn't help, so he just talked freely here.

"For example, a car needs a lot of sensors on its body. Our Golden Sun electric car needs a large number of radar probes. In the past, no matter how many were installed, it was not enough. Now, the surface of the car body is covered with a layer of this kind of conformal antenna. , then we can monitor everything.”

If it is just to provide help when reversing, then two probes at the rear of the car are enough, but if you want to detect things on both sides, you need at least four. This is only safe. In the era of smart cars, four will definitely be enough. It's not enough. If you want to merge, you have to monitor whether there are cars on the side. Therefore, six at the back and six at the front can provide sufficient insurance.

But that's not enough.

In the future, we will attach a circle of conformal antennas, which will provide coverage without blind spots.

"Not only can it detect the surrounding conditions, but it can also emit radio frequency signals to achieve the rapid development of automotive networking technology."