At the 2019 National Day parade, the Attack 11 was undoubtedly the dominant weapon, as it was the only weapon among all the reference equipment that appeared alone, apart from various fighter jets flying over the square. In this form, on the one hand, it may imply the extraordinary importance of attacking 11, and on the other hand, it also indicates that it is becoming our military's future black technology weapon.
Visually, the Attack 11 is a tailless flying wing drone, very similar to the world's only stealth bomber, the B2. And fighter jets designed in this way are often the most suitable for stealth. As is well known, the B2 bomber can easily break through most of the world's air defense systems with its excellent omnidirectional stealth capability and infrared stealth performance. Even such high-performance fighter jets still use elevators to control steering and assist in takeoff. And Attack 11 cancelled the elevator design and replaced it with six jet holes, which is China's active jet technology.
The attack 11 without elevators has almost no strong radar signal reflection source, so its radar reflection interface is almost an order of magnitude smaller than the US B-2. At present, among the fighter jets deployed by countries around the world, only China's Attack 11 adopts this technology, while the United States' technology is still in the development stage.The tail of Attack 11 has also undergone special treatment, not only using a low radar cross-section design, but also adopting a flattening process on the nozzle. The flattened design of the nozzle can reduce the exhaust density of the engine by mixing the cooling airflow, significantly reducing the infrared radiation signal and improving the infrared stealth performance. This indicates that not only radar is unable to attack 11, but also missiles guided by infrared have no way to deal with it. This makes Attack 11 almost a stealthy monster that doesn't allow oil and salt to enter. In addition to the basic tailless wing configuration, the side edges of the attack 11 flaps and ailerons are also trimmed, which allows them to deceive radar even with large movements in the air. Therefore, such processing can greatly enhance the stealth capability of Attack 11. For the United States, details such as edge trimming only exist in engineered products like F22 and F35, which have been thoroughly tested. This also reflects the mature technology of Attacking 11 and the excellent quality of China's military industry from another perspective. Therefore, we can boldly speculate that as a drone, the stealth performance of the Attack 11 has fully surpassed that of the B2, and it has also achieved a complete breakthrough capability.
Attack 11 is about 10 meters long, with a wingspan of 14 meters and a takeoff weight of up to 10 tons. At the same time, it is equipped with China's independently developed WS19 engine, which has a combat radius of over 1500 kilometers and a range of more than 6 hours. In terms of attack, the Attack 11 mainly focuses on ground attacks and can carry various types of ground missiles or high explosive bombs. However, due to its stealth performance, its magazine is hidden inside the aircraft. Although the payload capacity may not be as much as traditional drones, due to its breakthrough attack characteristics, it is believed that Attack-11 will be able to perform combat missions excellently. It also has the ability to carry air-to-air missiles. Because modern times are a battlefield of network informationization, the attack 11 carrying air-to-air missiles can serve as an airborne mobile front launch pad, and under the guidance of other fighter jets or ground guidance, use its stealth performance to ambush or sneak attack enemy fighter jets. So attacking 11 may not require strong aerial combat capabilities, its high stealth ability is a necessary survival guarantee. At this point, many friends should be able to think that the Attack 11 can not only perform ground attack missions, but also serve as a wingman for other fighter jets. As we just mentioned, the attack 11 can carry a variety of weapons, so if it collaborates with Chinese fighter jets such as the J-20 or J-16 to carry out missions, missiles can be launched through the control of the fighter pilot. On the one hand, this attack method increases the firepower density that can be provided by one attack; On the other hand, it can also directly improve the safety of manned fighter pilots. In other words, Attack 11 is the eyes, ears, and hands extended by manned fighter jets. Even if Attack 11 cannot escape the fate of being shot down, our loss is only a drone, not an unacceptable loss.
For drones, there are two main types of typical attack missions. One type is breakthrough attack: it refers to a mission with specific tasks and targets that can strike the enemy within a specified time. To carry out breakthrough attacks, fighter jets generally need strong fast in and out capabilities, and their payload capacity does not need to be particularly high. The second type is the hunting and killing attack: this type of mission generally has no specific target and execution time, so it requires the aircraft to have a large payload and a long endurance. Based on the battery life of attack 11, it is highly likely that it is more inclined towards breakthrough attacks. This type of combat actually reduces its technical requirements for autonomous attacks. When attacking 11, the mission must be clear and the target must also be clear. Therefore, compared to drones specifically responsible for hunting and killing attacks, achieving the technical specifications of Attack 11 is not a very difficult task, and this is precisely why it can enter service ahead of many countries such as the United States. At present, it seems that Attack 11 should adopt a hybrid control method of autonomous and remote control.
There are currently three types of drones at the same level as China's Attack 11, namely the X47B from the United States, the Neuron from France, and the Hunter from Russia. In contrast, Western countries have abandoned the drone industry halfway not because their technological level has not reached the standard, but because they are too obsessed with hunting and killing attack drones. However, this type of drone requires an extremely sophisticated artificial intelligence operating system, which cannot be developed with current human capabilities, so drones from these countries are all constrained by objective conditions.
From this perspective, the service of Attacking 11 in our country is no different from the mainstream. This research and development approach does not pursue perfection, but rather focuses on doing what can be done first. Once the technology is updated, it can be applied to drones at any time. I believe that China has taken a very wise path in the development of drones, and simplifying a large and complex problem into smaller pieces is the only way to success. On the other hand, based on the foldable wings of Attack 11, it is highly likely to have the ability to board ships. At that time, it can also carry out anti-ship or anti submarine missions, and it will also contribute its strength to the glorious mission of guarding our country's maritime borders as it follows the aircraft carrier. Once attacking the 11th ship, it should have two combat modes. The first is solo combat, relying on excellent stealth performance to penetrate the enemy's defense network layer by layer with a single blade, taking the enemy general's head as if searching for it; The second mode of combat is to use our country's carrier based aircraft or H-20 to provide the strongest firepower assistance while serving as wingmen. Of course, the excellence of Attack 11 in our country is inevitably accompanied by many negative voices. Whether it is abroad or domestically, many people believe that Attack 11 imitates this or plagiarizes that. But for these statements, I think we just need to laugh them off. To this day, China's technological achievements have long been at the forefront of the world. Just the similarity in appearance cannot be called plagiarism, and the true combat effectiveness is always hidden in the details.
