Irkut from Russia has launched test of new unmanned aerial vehicle under the Proryv program 11711162

Defence & Security Industry News - Irkut
 
Irkut from Russia has launched test of new unmanned aerial vehicle under the Proryv program.
Irkut, a subsidiary of the United Aircraft Corporation, has launched the testing of a multirole unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in development under the Proryv (Russian for ‘breakthrough’) program, according to the Izvestia daily. Previously, the drone was known as Yak-133. The UAV can reconnoiter and attack enemy targets while remaining invisible to enemy radars. It features an original aerodynamic configuration setting it far apart from traditional aircraft.
     
Irkut, a subsidiary of the United Aircraft Corporation, has launched the testing of a multirole unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in development under the Proryv (Russian for ‘breakthrough’) program, according to the Izvestia daily. Previously, the drone was known as Yak-133. The UAV can reconnoiter and attack enemy targets while remaining invisible to enemy radars. It features an original aerodynamic configuration setting it far apart from traditional aircraft. Irkut-200 UAV at Engineering technologies international forum - 2010
     
The cutting-edge hunter-killer UAV will not only be equipped with air-to-ground missiles and bombs further down the road, but optronic and electronic intelligence systems and radar as well.

An Izvestia source in the aircraft industry said the drone had a very complex aerodynamic configuration embodying numerous unique solutions that have not ever been used in a production aircraft.

At the design stage, TsAGI (Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute), Irkut Corp. and the Yakovlev Design Bureau had discussions, with some opining that the aircraft shaped like that will not fly at all, says a participant in the program. Doubts were dispelled only after the UAV’s maiden flight in August this year.
The weapons suite of the aircraft have yet to be hashed out, but it is known now that it will take out static targets with laser, optical and GLONASS homing bombs.

The Proryv’s unique aerodynamic configuration makes it not only invisible to enemy radars even when it launches its weapons or reconnoiters targets, but agile and fast enough as well, the source said. Quite a systems integration job had had to be done before the cutting-edge UAV flown. Roscosmos, inter alia, had taken part in the systems integration.

The term ‘systems integration’ means pooling all of an aircraft’s systems and subsystems into one. According to the Izvestia’s source, using up-to-date technologies, it is possible to make an aircraft of virtually any design fly and maneuver, but the problem of controlling it persists.

"The systems of an aircraft must operate in concert, as a single organism. For instance, if the pilot starts a maneuver, all of the systems aboard the aircraft - the navigation, engine control and other ones - must optimize their work in such a manner in accordance with the aircraft’s design so that the maneuver is completed smoothly," the aircraft maker explained. Up-to-date aircraft comprise several thousand systems and subsystems supervising and controlling hundreds of parameters in flight, and the pilot cannot keep an eye on every one of them all by himself. Therefore, present-day aircraft are furnished with information management systems making aircraft operate bodily.

The key aspect of systems integration is to develop algorithms and mathematical formulae setting the operating logic and parameters of all systems of the aircraft. The algorithms and formulae are turned into a computer program and uploaded to the aircraft’s information management system.

In Russia, UAVs are all the rage now with both state-owned and private companies, says Sergei Zhukov, AeroNet program manager of the National Technological Initiative. As for airframes, Russia is on a par with best foreign small drone standards and is just a little - less than three years - behind foreign designers as far as large UAV super-lightweight composite structures are concerned. Speaking of navigation and aircraft control systems, the Russian ones are rivaling foreign designs, but their drawback is that they use imported electronic components. Russia is lagging behind a bit in terms of power plant development, but it is working on deriving piston and turbojet engines from foreign prototypes, which is being done proactively. The country is developing its own problem-oriented monitoring data products and has started promoting them on the global market, and it may lead foreign competitors by a year or two as far as general airspace integration is concerned, Zhukov told the Izvestia daily.
     
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