The strongest pilot ever

Chapter 399 Loyal Wingman
399 Loyal Wingman
The task was completed, and Chen Fei flew back.

This task is very easy, and the difficulty is not even as difficult as Chen Fei used to fly a J-[-] to complete the ground bombing.

But this is easy to understand. The advantages of the sixth-generation machine are too obvious, and it is simply crushing. Whether it is stealth performance or data processing capabilities, they are invincible and have no rivals.

So today's task is not very challenging.

Take off, arrive at the designated airspace, wait, the target appears, enter the attack route, wait for the best time, lock, launch, and then return to the field.

Fade Chen returned smoothly.

In the next few days, Fade Chen started another test flight, which was a formation test flight, and he no longer fought alone.

However, his formation test flight was different from the previous formations, because his wingman was an unmanned J-[-].

Humanoid and unmanned, each has its own advantages and characteristics.

The advantage of the unmanned J-[-] is that it can maximize its super maneuverability. For example, it can cruise at a speed of Mach [-]. For example, it can easily fly outside the atmosphere without worrying about cosmic ray radiation. When doing high-intensity maneuvers, there is no need to worry about the pilot being unable to withstand the overload, and every performance can be maximized.

But the unmanned type also has its own shortcomings, that is, the ability to perform complex tasks is relatively poor. Although the unmanned J-[-] has always been controlled by humans, the farther the distance is, the more difficult it is for the operator to control. Without an intuitive feeling, he can only analyze and summarize through various data and materials, which has a certain delay. It is okay to conduct ground bombing, but it is difficult to engage in air combat.

In addition, the battlefield environment is complex. Although the J-[-]'s anti-interference ability is very strong, it does not rule out the situation that it will go deep into a complex electromagnetic environment. Once entering that environment, the operator's control over the J-[-] will be relatively weak. No matter how strong the [-]'s electronic warfare capability is, it is impossible to be stronger than the professional reactance troops. The power is there, and the obstacle cannot be overcome. Once entering that complex electromagnetic environment, the operator may lose the J-[-]. zero.

On the contrary, the humanoid J-[-] has a higher survival rate in complex battlefield environments.

The current battlefield environment is not that simple. Therefore, some complex tasks still require the use of humanoid J-[-]s. However, there are too few humanoid J-[-]s. The main reason is that the number of pilots who can control this aircraft is too small, and the training period It is relatively long, so after research, the relevant departments felt that it should be the most appropriate to use an unmanned J-[-] as a wingman and a humanoid J-[-] to perform tasks together, and they can use their respective strengths. They can also make up for their respective shortcomings.

Therefore, the next task Fade Chen has to do is to cooperate with his new wingman and conduct flight tests together.

Using drones as wingmen of manned aircraft is not the first initiative of our army, nor is it only invented now.

The U.S. Air Force is the originator of this aspect. They have been secretly developing the XQ-58A "Valkyrie" unmanned fighter a long time ago. He is a weapon that changes the rules of the game.

The XQ-58A is a long-range, high subsonic unmanned aerial vehicle. "It's a jet-powered drone designed to fly alongside a manned fighter jet and pilot itself."

It is distinct from popular American drones such as the MQ-9 because it is jet-powered and can (theoretically) go supersonic, allowing it to keep pace with F-16s or F-35s .

With the advancement of military technology, the role of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the air battlefield is increasing day by day, even surpassing manned aircraft, and pushing the future air battlefield to the field of manned and unmanned mixed operations. Long-term and wide-area operations rely on unmanned aerial vehicles. After completion, the UAV followed the manned aircraft to perform high-risk tasks such as air escort and sudden air combat, thus the concept of "loyal wingman" emerged.

Distributed air control missiles solve the problem of immediate firepower, while the combination of loyal wingmen and missiles solves the problem of delivering missiles to various places on the battlefield for a long time to form a multi-wave, hierarchical and organized air force. question.

In addition, in addition to strike missions, loyal wingmen are also the link in the air battlefield, responsible for tasks such as detection, communication, and interference, organically connecting bombs and aircraft, and bombs and bombs to form a networked, intelligent interconnected strike system, changing the current single-manner and missile system. Connect to the data channel to form a future distributed air battlefield.

Generally speaking, the wingman refers to the aircraft that follows the lead plane to perform tasks during the formation flight. The wingman should maintain the specified position in the formation, observe the air situation, and execute the order of the lead plane.

The small unmanned aerial vehicle system works as a wingman to cooperate with the manned combat aircraft as the lead plane to improve the overall combat effectiveness.The lead plane expands the total ammunition capacity by controlling the weaponized small UAV; the stealth aircraft avoids revealing its position information by letting the wingman perform the most easily detected tasks; the wingman acts as a long-range sensor, "shooter" or decoy , Improve the flexibility and survivability of the lead aircraft, thereby expanding the ability to perform persistent operations in high-risk environments.

But at the same time, there are some problems, such as how to efficiently help pilots make decisions, how to form a close team with pilots to cooperate with each other, and how to manage the workload of pilots, etc.

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is developing a combat management system for this purpose, "to quickly integrate data, provide information needed for decision-making, not all information, and allow all distributed systems to work together." In order to achieve "loyal wingman" technology .

The "loyal wingman" technology is different from the swarm technology.

Loyal wingmen can follow manned aircraft to carry out tasks such as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, air interdiction (interception), combating the enemy's integrated air defense system, offensive anti-aircraft operations, command and control of micro-unmanned systems in the area of ​​responsibility, or as a weapon carrier , to increase the number of airborne weapons of the attacker.

The "loyal wingman" has self-defense capabilities, so it has certain survivability in medium and high threat environments.In addition, the "loyal wingman" may also be a large drone, used for cargo transportation or as a tanker.

"Loyal wingman" mainly has the following two advantages: UAVs have the characteristics of low cost, no casualties, strong adaptability, and flexible configuration. Perception, jamming and strike assistance.Combined with the improvement of unmanned autonomous cognition ability, unmanned "loyal wingman" can reduce the cognitive workload of combatants, so that they can focus on complex planning and combat tasks, and respond to transient and changeable situations with faster response speed. battlefield environment.

It can be seen that the unmanned wingman is not the first of the J-[-].

However, there is no doubt that the J-[-] must be the master among them, especially the loyal wingman technology, which is so advanced that it cannot be added.

Fade Chen took off with his unmanned wingman.

Because Bingbing is responsible for all the control of takeoff—the wingman’s artificial intelligence system is completely subordinate to Bingbing in terms of hierarchy—so this time the takeoff was very wonderful. The two fighters flew up almost in the same attitude, sliding The distance, speed, and angle of attack when pulling up are exactly the same. Even the most ace pilot combination of Bayi Aerobatic Team can't fly such a wonderful posture. I have to admit that in this respect, artificial intelligence has completely exploded pilots.

After the two planes took off, they formed formation in the air, and then flew to the training airspace together.

The wingman is located on the right side of Fade Chen, the upper right side, ten kilometers above him, and the distance between the two planes on a parallel line is exactly fifty kilometers. Ordinary wingmen, that is, wingmen between pilots, are not so far apart, but The J-30 can do it. The distance of [-] kilometers is a very short distance for an unmanned wingman. He can break through the speed of sound in more than [-] seconds, and then accelerate to Mach [-] very quickly. At this speed, [-] kilometers There is no problem at all.

The two aircraft flew together towards the target airspace.

After flying for a while, Bingbing reported: "Colonel, I am about to enter the training airspace. The attack target has been found on the hole. Please instruct me on how to proceed next!"

Fade Chen glanced at the multi-function display, which had already displayed the situation detected by the wingman one by one.

Because the wingman is unmanned, he is not exactly the same as Fade Chen's fighter. Whether it is the weapons mounted or the equipment settings, they are different. The two fighters complement each other. For example, the radar of the wingman is better than that of Fade Chen. One needs to be stronger and more powerful, and the electronic warfare system must be stronger, which just makes up for Fade Chen's shortcomings, because his fighter is humanoid. If nothing else, if the radar and electronic warfare system The power of the combat equipment is too high, and the radiation alone can make him unbearable, but now, there is no one on the wingman, no matter how strong the radiation is.

Moreover, the wingman and his plane, whether it is a laser cannon or a microwave cannon, have a cooling time, but if the two planes cooperate with each other, I will attack while you are cooling down, and you will be able to attack immediately after I finish attacking. Fired up, just so seamlessly.

Fade Chen glanced at the multi-function display screen. On it, a drone group of five aircraft formations was cruising in the target airspace.

No need for Fade Chen to do anything, the artificial intelligence has automatically numbered the five small drones, the first target, the second target, and the third target.

Fade Chen took a look, and immediately said: "Bingbing, order Dong Er to enter the inner side of the target route and occupy the altitude."

"understand!"

Chen Fei said again: "We entered the left rear of the target, the height is the same, and we are ready for the laser cannon attack!"

"Good Colonel!"

Two J-[-] fighter jets immediately flew to the target airspace at high speed.

Soon, Fade Chen ordered: "Two holes, microwave cannon, second block once, shoot!"

boom!
A microwave radiance slams down on the target cluster.

The electronic equipment on the drone was suddenly paralyzed.

The three drones wobbled for a while, then lost their target and fell towards the ground.

But two more have doggedly continued to fly.

Fade Chen continued to order: "Hole two, target number four, shoot by yourself!"

After giving the relevant instructions, Fade Chen said: "Bingbing, target No. [-], one time in first gear, fire!"

call out!
A laser shot out, and the two-meter-long unmanned target drone was cut off from the middle and turned into two pieces.

The first task is completed, and the other tasks continue.

A week later, Fade Chen's flight test mission ended smoothly.

Of course, this does not mean that J-[-] is perfect.After studying the wreckage of the alien plane, the experts from Chengdu Aircraft Factory found a few places where they did a better job, and then formulated a new upgrade plan. However, most of these upgrades are based on software. Mainly, especially in terms of artificial intelligence, there is almost no need to change the hardware and appearance.

When everything was ready, Fade Chen drove the J-[-] and returned to Sanjiang Military Base with his wingman.

After leaving the space tunnel, Fade Chen contacted the base: "The base, I am a ghost, and I am ordered to report to you now!"

Ghost is Chen Fei's current code name. He is now flying the J-[-], so his code name is Ghost.

"Ghost, our radar can't find your location, please turn on the Longbo lens and let us see you!" An instruction came from the base command.

In fact, Chen Fei didn't open it on purpose, he just wanted to try the stealth effect of J-[-].

The radar unit of our army at the Sanjiang base is very strong, and the most advanced anti-stealth radar is also installed here. To be honest, ordinary aircraft, even if it is J-[-], even if it does not use the Longbo lens, the ground warning radar It can also be seen at a glance, but now, the facts once again prove that the stealth performance of the J-[-] is really leveraged, and even our army's most advanced anti-stealth radar cannot detect it.

it is good!
very good!
Fade Chen couldn't help being overjoyed.

After he calmed down a bit, he said, "Bingbing, turn on our Longbo lens to simulate the spectrum of the J-[-] radar."

"Understood, turn on the Longbo lens to simulate the radar spectrum of the J-[-]." Bingbing replied.

Soon a certain place on the J-[-] fighter was opened, revealing a more ingenious Longbo lens. After a while, the electromagnetic pulse scanned by the ground security radar was reflected by the Longbo lens, and was reflected into the J-[-] Unique characteristic reflection signal.

After three or four seconds, the ground command post said: "Ghost, I saw you, please land according to the landing route!"

"Understood!" Fade Chen replied.

He glanced at the eyepiece on the helmet. On it, Bingbing had displayed a brand new landing route. Fade Chen took a look and found that his landing route was different from the previous one. The F-[-] was set up. Fade Chen had already had a batch of four unmanned J-[-]s come to serve at the base, but the manned J-[-]s, this one of Fade Chen was the first one. He attaches great importance to it, and built an airport specially for him, and specially set up the takeoff and landing routes. On the one hand, because the J-[-] is too big, especially when it is fully loaded with bombs, the general runway is not suitable for his takeoff. One factor is that the J-[-] is, after all, our army's sixth-generation aircraft and our army's secret weapon, so its secrecy work requires very high requirements, and another better airport is needed to implement it.

Chen Fei glanced at the navigation map, and there was no problem. He said to the artificial intelligence: "Bingbing, land according to the landing route."

"understand!"

The two fighter jets flew towards the base, and landed steadily on the runway. After gliding for a certain distance, the speed became slower and slower, just like people walking. The ground crew commanded and guided the fighter jets to slide into several bunkers. The hangars, these hangars are all specially made, and ordinary ground penetrating bombs cannot destroy them, and they are very strong. Naturally, high-value equipment such as the J-[-] needs to be parked inside, under full martial law, and the highest protection is enforced!
(End of this chapter)