With the continuous development of science and technology and the intelligent evolution of the war form, artificial intelligence technology and "zero casualty" war demand to jointly promote the birth of a new mode of combat - unmanned combat has been on the stage of the human war, with group intelligence of the drone swarm has been UAV swarms with group intelligence have developed combat power that should not be underestimated, quietly changing the face and shape of war. Because UAV swarms are autonomous, flexible, low-cost and cost-effective, swarming tactics have become a new type of combat method favored by countries all over the world. At the same time, in order to reduce the real threat posed by drone swarms, countries are also competing to build anti-drone swarm capabilities.
Drone swarm warfare characteristics
The essence of drone swarm combat is to use drones as a carrier, the integration of cluster attack tactics with autonomous systems, artificial intelligence, big data and other cutting-edge technologies, whose operationalized use may subvert the traditional theory of air warfare and reshape the air battlefield model.
Advantages of Drone Swarm Combat
The core concept of UAV swarm combat is to coordinate the different functions of UAVs through networking to form the quantitative advantage of sensors and strike weapons in the battlefield, and use this advantage to consume the enemy's anti-aircraft munitions and paralyze the enemy's anti-aircraft system. Compared with the traditional combat platform, the UAV swarm combat has many advantages: First, it is a strong capability of surprise and defense. Swarm UAV radar reflection area is small, infrared features are weak, flight speed is slow, the existing reconnaissance and detection equipment is difficult to achieve effective detection and identification of such "low, slow and small" targets. Secondly, it is the advantage of intelligent coordination. UAV swarm based on group intelligence, real-time perception of the battlefield situation, through collaborative control, can realize self-organizing formation, adaptive flight, and according to the battlefield situation for mobile, flexible collaborative control and modular grouping, in order to cope with the complex and changing battlefield environment. Third, the mission load is rich. UAV swarm mission payloads are modularized and can be flexibly configured according to operational needs, with functions covering reconnaissance, communications, electronic countermeasures, low-altitude strikes, etc., thus adapting to different battlefield environments, carrying out diversified tasks, and achieving high operational effectiveness.
Drone Swarming Weaknesses
The concept of UAV swarm redefines the rules of war and the mechanism of winning by numbers, and innovates the operational use of air power. However, because the concept is too advanced, UAV swarms also have certain weaknesses in combat utilization: first, the fragility of navigation and communication. UAV swarm electromagnetic characteristics are obvious, highly dependent on navigation links, inter-machine links and control links, any one of these links were cut off, by the "collapse effect", the UAV swarm are directly facing the risk of paralysis. Secondly, it is difficult to plan flight paths. Affected by the endurance, the optimized route formulated in advance will often face the test of the rapidly changing battlefield conditions, and the autonomous route planning requires a large number of algorithms to support, and there are doubts about the reliability of the actual application. Third, the combination of theory and technology is not good. UAV swarming is a research field formed by the intersection of military theory and military technology, and it is difficult to focus on complex issues involving UAV swarming technology and tactics, and there is still a certain distance between realizing the integration of swarming operations into the joint command system and force system.
State of the art of countering drone swarming capabilities by means of grid electricity
As one of the important means of countering UAV swarms, net-electricity countermeasures have the advantages of low cost, simple operation and small collateral damage, etc., and have become the first choice of countries to deal with the threat of UAV swarms, and at present the net-electricity means of countering UAV swarms have the following main aspects of combat capability.
Detection and identification capabilities
The detection and identification capability of UAV swarms mainly includes radar, radio and photoelectric detection. Traditional radar is difficult to detect and track "low, slow and small" targets, and it is even more impossible to identify the target type, but with the introduction of micro-Doppler detection methods, new clutter suppression technology and other technical means, new radar is able to realize the monitoring and early warning of small unmanned aerial vehicles within a certain airspace. Radio detection can detect remote control link signals within tens of kilometers of it, but it is difficult to carry out accurate positioning; radio frequency scanning technology, which can be used to carry out real-time monitoring, analysis and direction measurement of small unmanned aerial vehicles in the frequency band of remote control and map transmission signals. Photoelectric detection can effectively identify small unmanned aircraft targets within 5 km, but there are difficulties in continuous tracking and multi-target identification, and constrained by the weather, photoelectric detection usually does not have the ability to measure range, making it difficult to be used alone, and is generally used only as a complementary confirmation of radar detection and radio detection.
"Soft kill" capabilities
The "soft kill" capability of UAV swarms mainly includes data chain, navigation and optoelectronic jamming, etc. Data chain jamming mainly uses control signal jamming, eavesdropping, intrusion hijacking and control signal spoofing. Data chain jamming mainly adopts control signal interference, eavesdropping, intrusion hijacking and control signal deception, etc. In line-of-sight communication, blocking jamming or frequency tracking jamming can be used; for satellite relay communication, jamming can be carried out to destroy the nodes of the communication circuit, so as to cause it to be out of control and forced to land and return to the flight. Navigation spoofing can be used to target GPS-guided UAV swarms by transmitting false GPS control signals through pseudo-GPS transmitters, interfering with the aircraft's navigation system, spoofing the position of the UAV, spoofing the positioning, and pulling off the route, so that the UAV obtains wrong information and cannot fly in accordance with the established routes. Photoelectric interference utilizes the emission, scattering and absorption of specific energy light waves to reduce the effectiveness of small UAV reconnaissance, and the current range of photoelectric active interference equipment for small UAVs is generally between 10km and 15km.
"Hard destroy" capability
The "hard-destruction" capability of drone swarms mainly includes laser weapons and high-power microwave weapons for target destruction. Laser weapons utilize high-energy laser beams to burn the shells or key parts of small drones, and can precisely control the beam energy and quickly convert the beam direction to effectively burn and destroy the drones, and it is not easy to cause collateral damage, but the effect of the effect is seriously affected by the weather factor. High-power microwave weapons burn the electronic components of UAVs by launching high-power, wide-angle electromagnetic pulse, which is manifested as high-voltage breakdown, device burning, microwave heating, surge impact, instantaneous interference, and has large-area killing and defense capability. In addition, the synergy of conventional firepower weapons such as precision-guided munitions and anti-aircraft missiles with network and electric means can make up for each other's deficiencies and form a better countermeasure against drone swarms.
Foreign network power means to counteract drone swarm warfare methods
Comprehensively speaking, the above-mentioned characteristics of drone swarm combat, combined with the current status of countering drone swarm capabilities by means of existing foreign networks and electric means, summarizes the countering drone swarm warfare method of "detecting, disturbing and hitting" as a whole, with "detecting" meaning "early reconnaissance and early detection"; "disturbing" meaning "disturbing and deceiving and combining, and comprehensively suppressing"; and "hitting" meaning "letter and fire as a whole, and joint strikes".
Advance reconnaissance and discovery as far as possible
In the anti-drone swarm reconnaissance phase, generally according to the direction of possible drone swarm attacks, the comprehensive use of the ground, sea, air detection networks of various types, the formation of an all-round, multi-level, focused airborne reconnaissance system, multi-dimensional detection and passive reconnaissance means and with the use of far from the near to carry out reconnaissance and early-warning actions, as far as possible to find swarm harassment threats, to provide early warning for the launch of defense and resistance actions. First, early warning. We have built an information-sharing, timely and efficient intelligence transmission and processing system, coordinated technical investigation, aerial investigation, marine police and other reconnaissance and surveillance forces, strengthened the monitoring of hive movements, and gained early control of drone swarming signs of action, so as to reserve sufficient time for disposal. Second, mid-range detection. According to the main threat direction of the swarm, the early warning aircraft will be organized to lift off for alert patrols, combined with the use of electronic countermeasure reconnaissance equipment such as ground-based airborne alert radar, so as to grasp the number of swarms, their trajectories, attributes and other information in a timely and continuous manner, and to provide target guidance for the subsequent actions of disturbing, blocking, fighting and breaking. Third, the end of the warning. Comprehensive use of various types of weapons platform fire control guidance radar, optical, infrared countermeasures system, to strengthen the search and tracking of low-altitude targets, accurate real-time warning of incoming targets, rapid organization of the end of the electronic protection, reduce the battlefield swarm situational awareness capabilities.
Combination of jamming and deception, comprehensive suppression
In the anti-UAV swarm jamming phase, generally for the swarm's weakness of relying heavily on command and coordination communications and navigation and positioning, the comprehensive use of full-frequency blocking and precision jamming methods, continuous disruption of the swarm's internal communications, comprehensive suppression of the swarm's control links with the rear accusation platforms and information transfer, combined with network ambushes, electronic deception and other deployment and control actions, so as to reduce its operational effectiveness. First, link blocking. Using electronic warfare aircraft to go forward as early as possible, outside the defense zone, focusing on the swarm navigation signals, coordinated communications, and command communications between the swarm and the hive to implement jamming, reducing its initial stage system deployment capabilities. Synchronize the use of satellite jamming systems to jam and suppress the swarm's satellite communication links, destroying the swarm's external command and control communications. Second, camouflage deception. The use of optoelectronic jamming equipment to implement composite camouflage on the command structure, high-tech weapon positions and other important targets for hidden camouflage, increasing the difficulty of enemy drones reconnaissance, detection, combat, and reduce the effectiveness of its mission. Third, navigation interference. Comprehensive use of electronic countermeasures aircraft, ground navigation jamming equipment continuous release of navigation jamming, reducing its positioning accuracy, forcing it to return or crash. When the swarm approaches within the range of my close-range air defense, it uses GPS-placed deception jammers to release full-time wide-area decoy signals to implement regional denial and repulsion.
Integration of letter and fire, joint strike
Foreign countries in the anti-drone swarm destruction stage, generally electronic interference and other soft killing means and directed energy weapons, air defense fire and other hard destruction means into one, relying on the original defense and resistance system, in the implementation of the drone swarm communication, navigation, based on the comprehensive suppression, the rational use of the co-defense ships and aircraft, shore-based air defense fire, the end of the electronic defense system, the organization of the letter of fire, the integration of soft and hard joint strikes, to maximize the enhancement of the The success rate of interception and counterattack is maximized. First, long-range aerial interception. Comprehensive multiple sources of intelligence, determine the direction of the swarm, and lead the UAVs to destroy the hive; use the UAVs to mount electromagnetic pulse bombs to fly into the swarm to carry out electronic destruction, and destroy the swarm's airframe and mission payloads over a large area. The second is the medium-range supplementary strike. With the cooperation of satellite communication jamming system, the electronic jamming aircraft continuously implements communication jamming suppression within the fire cover of shore-based and ships to destroy the internal and external command and communication of the swarm; and utilizes the reconnaissance data to guide the fighters to continuously seek and destroy the drone swarm. Third, the end of the sustained resistance. After the swarm continuously enters the striking range, the use of high-power microwave weapons to implement electromagnetic damage, so that the swarm mission load is disabled; synchronized use of various types of anti-aircraft artillery and dense array of artillery to implement rapid-fire interception, so that the swarm falls or the mission load is disabled.
concluding remarks
With the maturity of UAV miniaturization and networking technology and its wide application in military operations with intelligent characteristics, more and more swarm systems will be applied to a wide range of battlefield environments, which has become a key factor in promoting the change of military formations, and will surely change the mode of war and the rules of victory, and scientifically grasping the inherent victorious mechanism of anti-UAV swarms will become an indispensable element on the future battlefield.