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Drone + superb? China's Rainbow-9 exposure supporting giant missile, is it the Type 21 air-launched masterpiece?

In the past few days, a photo of a certain type of large-scale Chada integrated drone of Aerospace Rainbow testing an air-launched hypersonic vehicle has sparked heated discussions on the Internet.

Drone + superb? China's Rainbow-9 exposure supporting giant missile, is it the Type 21 air-launched masterpiece?

Judging from the public photos, the whole body of this drone is painted in green, probably using composite skin, and four pylons with large pods are installed under the wings. It is very strange that the wingtip of the main wing of the aircraft has winglets, which can be effectively increased while shortening the wingspan of the main wing, which is a very unique design in the existing UAV.

According to the shape characteristics of the wingtips and winglets of the main wing, this should be the newly developed rainbow-9 large-scale chada integrated UAV developed by Aerospace Rainbow, which is expected to be exhibited as the fist product of Aerospace Rainbow at this year's Zhuhai Air Show.

Drone + superb? China's Rainbow-9 exposure supporting giant missile, is it the Type 21 air-launched masterpiece?

Of course, the most striking thing about the Rainbow-9 UAV in the photo is the aviation weapon in front of it, and everyone pays attention to a certain type of air-to-surface missile at the front of the picture. Judging from the appearance, this type of air-to-surface missile has a clear bi-cone warhead shape, painted with orange and yellow lines, and should be an inert counterweight of a hypersonic vehicle......

How can this Rainbow-9 UAV still be hung with hypersonic aircraft? Originally, it was a big guy that could only be hung by H-6K/J bombers, but now the Rainbow-9 UAV can also be hung? So, is the performance of the Rainbow-9 Chada UAV really so strong?

Rainbow-9 with superb weapons

Big Ivan thinks that let's take a look at this hypersonic vehicle in front of the Rainbow-9. Although many military fans generally feel that this hypersonic vehicle and the hypersonic vehicle displayed at the 2022 Zhuhai Air Show and hanging under the wing pylons of the H-6K bomber should be the same model, Big Ivan took a closer look and found that there are still some differences between the two:

Drone + superb? China's Rainbow-9 exposure supporting giant missile, is it the Type 21 air-launched masterpiece?

For example, judging from the appearance, the hypersonic vehicle hanging under the wing of the H-6K is very large. According to the data, the main tire used by the Tu-16 bomber has an outer diameter of 1100 mm, and the diameter of this air-launched hypersonic vehicle looks to be about the same as the diameter of the main tire of the H-6K, and the diameter is expected to be at least about 800 mm.

In contrast, the hypersonic vehicle placed in front of the Rainbow-9 seems to be smaller, and from the perspective of the participants on one side, it is estimated that the diameter of its missile body is slightly smaller.

Drone + superb? China's Rainbow-9 exposure supporting giant missile, is it the Type 21 air-launched masterpiece?

For another example, judging from the shape of the hypersonic vehicle mounted on the H-6K bomber, it uses a four-piece fixed tail design, and uses a large launch frame unique to the H-6K, which is similar in shape to the K/AKD-63 series air-to-surface missiles. This hair guide frame is very thick and relatively simple in appearance, and from the design of the hair guide frame, it can also be seen that the launch weight of this hypersonic vehicle is very large.

But judging from the shape of this hypersonic vehicle in front of the Rainbow-9, its tail wings can be folded, and the hair guide used is a relatively small hair guide frame, which is completely different from the hair guide frame on the H-6K. Big Ivan looked for the pictures taken at the Zhuhai Air Show before, and did not find this new type of hair guide, but it was similar to a certain universal hair guide used in the J-10CP fighter exported to Pakistan.

Drone + superb? China's Rainbow-9 exposure supporting giant missile, is it the Type 21 air-launched masterpiece?

The difference in the shape of the hair guide and the tail seems to confirm from the side that the hypersonic vehicle placed in front of the Rainbow-9 is still somewhat different from the hypersonic vehicle hanging under the wing of the H-6K, the former is more similar to a pocket version of the latter.

However, whether it is a full-size hypersonic vehicle similar to that mounted on the H-6K, or a pocket-sized hypersonic vehicle for tactical aircraft, it is already very amazing to be able to hang on the Rainbow-9 UAV. After all, this is just a reconnaissance and combat UAV, can you believe that it can be used for air strikes?

Rainbow-9 performance

However, in terms of the performance of the Rainbow-9 UAV, it seems that there is nothing strange about being able to hang a hypersonic vehicle. The UAV itself is a large, can be used for strategic strike UAV, its flight performance is very good, the length of the fuselage is about 14 meters, the wingspan is about 25 meters, the maximum range under the combat load is more than 10,000 kilometers, the cruising speed is 250 kilometers / h, the maximum stay time is about 24 hours, and the maximum take-off weight is more than 10 tons, which has reached the order of some strong attack aircraft.

Drone + superb? China's Rainbow-9 exposure supporting giant missile, is it the Type 21 air-launched masterpiece?

As a comparison, the MQ-9 UAV, which is now the mainstream of the Chada UAV, has a body length of only 10.97 meters, a wingspan of 19.51 meters, and a maximum take-off weight of only 4.54 tons, which is almost half worse than our Rainbow-9 UAV.

Our UAV, large take-off weight, large body size, natural things to bring, rainbow-9 UAV under the wing of at least 3 large pylons, belly center line also has a pylon, the maximum external weight is actually greater than 3 tons. Even if the pylons under the wings can't hang something as heavy as a hypersonic vehicle, there is no problem at all with a load of about a ton on the belly centerline pylon.

Drone + superb? China's Rainbow-9 exposure supporting giant missile, is it the Type 21 air-launched masterpiece?

In fact, even from this photo of the Rainbow-9 participating in the research and test in the field, the Rainbow-9's weapons and the carrying capacity of various pods are intimidating, and the Rainbow-9 in the photo does not carry air-surface missiles under the wings, but four square pods, and a circular pod is attached to the belly center line pylon. We have never seen these five pods, and Big Ivan is inclined to believe that the four square pods are electronic warfare pods, and the round pods are most likely opposite or even anti-air alert radar pods.

This means that the Rainbow-9 UAV can not only undertake the conventional reconnaissance and combat mission, but also can be used as a long-endurance electronic warfare aircraft, in the air to undertake signal reconnaissance, electronic countermeasures and other functions, and can also be used as an air early warning aircraft or opposite surveillance aircraft, to undertake airspace surveillance, battlefield situation awareness, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) mapping and other functions.

Drone + superb? China's Rainbow-9 exposure supporting giant missile, is it the Type 21 air-launched masterpiece?

Considering the size of the radar pod mounted on the Rainbow-9 and the possible radar aperture, it is estimated that the Rainbow-9 UAV can maintain the performance of airspace surveillance and ground target mapping within a range of 200 to 300 kilometers. There are not many UAVs with this kind of performance, and the Rainbow-9 UAV can be said to be the first, which can fully meet the monitoring tasks of the campaign territory of the group army and even the front army.

In addition to the four large electronic warfare pods that have been hung under the Rainbow-9 UAV, there is also this air-launched hypersonic vehicle in front, and some conventional aviation weapons are placed in front of the wings of the Rainbow-9. Big Ivan took a general look, and what he could distinguish included the FT series of precision-guided bombs developed by the Aerospace Science and Technology Group, and some AR series air-to-surface missiles that were obviously the Aerospace Science and Technology Group.

Drone + superb? China's Rainbow-9 exposure supporting giant missile, is it the Type 21 air-launched masterpiece?

What is puzzling is on the right side of the photo, and some of the aviation weapons and ammunition released on the right side of the photo seem to be rare. For example, an aviation weapon placed in front of the Rainbow-9 on the right side seems to have straight wings, which looks like a cruise missile, which may be an AR-3 heavy cruise missile from the Aerospace Science and Technology Group. This type of cruise missile is said to have a range of 100 kilometers, and in addition to carrying out non-point-of-sight strikes, it can also be used as a loyal wingman of the Rainbow-9 UAV itself, undertaking auxiliary battlefield reconnaissance missions.

Drone + superb? China's Rainbow-9 exposure supporting giant missile, is it the Type 21 air-launched masterpiece?

The shape of the two missiles on the far right side of the photo is even more confusing, these two missiles seem to have a small diameter, and as an air-to-surface missile, you can't help but wonder how lethal it is...... One of the missiles also has a pronounced, canard-wing aerodynamic design that resembles an air-to-air combat missile, and a protective mouth cover on the head, presumably to protect the infrared seeker. It seems that this is an obvious air-to-air combat missile, can the Rainbow-9 UAV also carry air-to-air missiles? This seems a little more surprising.

The task that Rainbow-9 can take on

However, judging from the various payload schemes of the Rainbow-9 UAV, the tasks it can undertake in wartime are very diverse. Of course, it is unrealistic to expect this type of UAV to work with fixed-wing fighters.

Drone + superb? China's Rainbow-9 exposure supporting giant missile, is it the Type 21 air-launched masterpiece?

Big Ivan still said that if the engine does not have afterburner, it will not be able to cooperate with fighters, especially with fifth-generation aircraft. After all, the air combat speed range of fifth-generation aircraft is now generally in the supersonic speed range, and you can't eat dust with a subsonic drone behind others.

The air-to-air missiles carried by the Rainbow-9 can only be used for self-defense at the last moment, or they can be used to launch A and B missiles, such as concealing and standby in the depth of the battlefield campaign, and being called as an air arsenal to directly carry out ultra-long-range attacks, to hit the opponent's early warning command and control aircraft or strategic-level electronic warfare aircraft, etc., and it cannot undertake more tasks.

Drone + superb? China's Rainbow-9 exposure supporting giant missile, is it the Type 21 air-launched masterpiece?

Of course, the Rainbow-9 is still very much in the mission of the Rainbow and the Combat Integration, and this air-launched hypersonic vehicle alone makes the positioning of the Rainbow-9 exceed that of the MQ-9 and the Wing Loong-2 UAVs.

The above two types of UAVs basically do not have the ability to attack outside the defense zone, and the air-surface ammunition they carry is basically carried out in the defense area, which also determines that their battlefield survivability is relatively limited, and the mode used is more similar to that of close air support (CAS) models. And the Rainbow-9, a radar pod, with a hypersonic vehicle, is suddenly different, we have a long-range defense outside the area attack capability, can be hundreds of kilometers away to shoot cold arrows.

Drone + superb? China's Rainbow-9 exposure supporting giant missile, is it the Type 21 air-launched masterpiece?

Therefore, the equipment application mode of the Rainbow-9 may be more similar to the J-16 or even the H-6K, and can be used as an opposing strike model, which makes it a level higher than the common reconnaissance and combat integrated UAV at the equipment level.

In short, judging from the current situation, the Rainbow-9 UAV will inevitably become the focus of attention at this year's Zhuhai Air Show, and then we will know that this hypersonic vehicle in front of the Rainbow-9 is not the same model as the H-6K, let us keep observing and quietly look forward to it.

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