On February 3, the 13th Edition of the India International Air & Space Show kicked off in the southern Indian city of Bangalore. According to statistics, India is currently the country with the second largest cumulative number of confirmed and fatal cases of covid-19 in the world. In this context, the Indian government also insists on holding large-scale exhibitions with intensive personnel flows such as the International Air and Space Exhibition, which has to be admired for its "courage and praise".
This year's Bangalore Airshow in India is also the first large-scale international defense exhibition held on time since the emergence of the epidemic, and the world's major arms dealers who have been "home" for more than a year without exhibition to participate in have finally looked forward to business opportunities and have shown the strongest enthusiasm for participating in the exhibition, especially the United States and Russian military enterprises.
India's demonstration of the "air combat cluster system" includes manned aircraft, cruise missiles, air-launched drones and "loyal wingman".
The sharp claws of the "Indian cat"
As India's only defence technology R&D institution, The India Bangalore Airshow has traditionally been home to the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) of India and India's largest aerospace industry company, Hindustan Aviation Limited (HAL). At this year's Bangalore Air Show in India, the biggest highlight was the air combat cluster system that was fully displayed for the first time by the Indian Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Hindustan Aviation Limited (HAL). Because the English abbreviation of its name is CATS, it is also nicknamed "Indian Cat".
In recent years, military enterprises and military researchers in Europe and the United States have proposed a number of design concepts for future air combat systems, including the "penetrating air superiority" of the US Air Force and the "Future Combat Aviation System" (FCAS) jointly launched by France, Germany and Spain. The biggest difference between these new concepts and the design concepts of previous generations of fighters is that they highlight the tactical integration of manned and unmanned fighters, and a complete air combat system composed of a variety of aircraft types and ammunition. The Air Combat Cluster System (CATS) demonstrated by India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) this time also adopts a similar design concept.
The Air Combat Cluster System (CATS) consists of the MAX manned fighter, the Warrior unmanned combat wingman, the Hunter air-to-ground cruise missile, and the Alpha-S swarm drone. Among them, MAX manned fighters can choose different models, the Indian Bangalore Air Show show is the "Tejas" Mk1A light fighter, and later can also be replaced by more advanced "Tejas" Mk2 twin-engine medium fighter and TEDBF stealth carrier-based fighter, and even AMCA medium stealth fighter.
The Tejas MK2 fighter jet was mounted under the belly of the Hunter air-to-ground cruise missile, a weapon that was the "claw" of the entire system.
There is no doubt that the MAX manned fighter is the core of the Air Combat Cluster System (CATS), which is responsible for the command and control center and launch platform. At the booth, the Indian Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Hindustan Aviation Co., Ltd. (HAL) also set up a "Tejas" Mk1A light fighter simulated cockpit, and the interface of its multi-functional display showed how pilots can use the airborne intelligent command and control system to achieve intelligent coordination between manned fighters and unmanned combat aircraft, and jointly complete the entire process of combat tasks.
Moreover, the Alpha-S swarm drone is mounted in the form of a launch pod under the wings or fuselage of the MAX manned fighter. Each launch pod is loaded with 4 Alpha-S swarm drones, which have an aerodynamic shape similar to the American Thunder Company Coyote drone. Therefore, the MAX manned fighter is more similar to a "mini aircraft carrier" capable of carrying and launching multiple Alpha swarm drones. At least for now, no advanced fighter in other countries has proposed a similar design concept, which can be regarded as one of the innovation points of the Indians' "brain opening".
The Hunter air-to-ground cruise missile is a long-range precision strike weapon mounted and launched by MAX manned fighters, and its design concept and overall layout are very similar to the German Taurus missile, but the dimensions and full importance are much smaller so that light fighters such as the Tejar Mk1A can also be mounted. Judging from the pictures released so far, the shape of the "Hunter" air-to-ground cruise missile has certain stealth design elements, using a small turbojet engine as the main force device, and the guidance system is a composite mode of infrared thermal imaging seeker plus GPS/inertial navigation and terrain matching navigation. The missile launches a total weight of more than 600 kg, is equipped with a 250 kg high explosive fragment killing warhead, and has a maximum range of more than 200 km.
A model of the AMCA stealth fighter on display in India.
Aiming for world-class Indian "warriors"
The Warrior unmanned combat wingman was apparently developed by the Indian Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Hindustan Aviation Limited (HAL) modeled on the concept of "loyal wingman" first proposed by the United States. At present, the U.S. Air Force and Kratos Company are steadily advancing the technical verification of the XQ-58A Valkyrie unmanned combat wingman. After the USAfric proposed the concept of "loyal wingman" and put it into practice, many imitators soon appeared, such as Australia and Boeing are jointly developing "loyal wingman" for the country's air force. The S-70 "Hunter"-B UAV launched by Russia's Sukhoi also has the need to fight with the Su-57 formation in the design positioning. At the "Army" -2020 International Military Technology Forum held by the Russian Ministry of Defense in 2020, the Kronstadt Group also launched a scale model such as an unmanned combat wingman with an aerodynamic shape design similar to the XQ-58A "Valkyrie".
From the perspective of aerodynamic layout, the "Warrior" unmanned combat wingman is very similar to the XQ-58A "Valkyrie" and the Kronstadt Group unmanned combat wingman, all of which adopt technical features such as air intake on the back, oblique double vertical tail, fusiform fuselage and diamond-shaped single wing. However, the Warrior unmanned combat wingmanship went further in terms of bomb bay settings and airborne weapons. For example, the Warrior unmanned combat wingman adopts a layout similar to that of a manned stealth fighter with two side magazines and a belly main ammunition bay. In this way, its weapons mounting capacity in the aircraft is stronger. Moreover, the Warrior unmanned combat wingman also displayed two types of ammunition, one is a close-range combat air-to-air missile similar to the "Aslam", and the other is a small intelligent anti-runway bomb. This also shows that the "Warrior" unmanned combat wingman must not only have the ability to attack the ground, but also have the ability to fight in air.
The Warrior drone is designed in stealth.
According to current news, the Indian Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Hindustan Aviation Limited (HAL) launched the advance verification of the Air Combat Cluster System (CATS) in 2017 and demonstrated their technical achievements to the indian Ministry of Defence and the Indian Air Force senior management. On this basis, the Indian Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Hindustan Aviation Limited (HAL) officially launched the research and development of the Air Combat Cluster System (CATS) from the end of 2019 to the beginning of 2020, and the preliminary design of each subsystem has been completed.
Therefore, the air combat cluster system (CATS) models we saw at the Air Show in Bangalore, India, have a certain maturity in design. Of course, it is not known whether there are large military enterprises in other countries providing technical support behind this. At least from the "Warrior" unmanned combat wingman, "Hunter" air-to-ground cruise missile and "Alpha" -S swarm UAV and other models of the shape design, there are imitations of the same type of equipment in Europe and the United States. According to the plan, the Indian Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Hindustan Aviation Limited (HAL) will complete the development of the Air Combat Cluster System (CATS) in 2025.
From the concept announced by India, the "Indian Cat" system aims at future high-end air combat, integrating advanced manned fighters, unmanned aerial vehicles and precision-guided munitions, and a variety of weapons will be equipped with artificial intelligence systems, and each subsystem can be integrated into combat, rather than simply integrated together. However, considering the current strength of The Indian aviation industry, whether the development work can be completed on time still needs to be questioned. If there is the technical support of Russian or European and American military enterprises, the possibility of their completion on time is relatively high, and the combat capability of the Indian Air Force can be raised to a new level.
Source: The Paper