HAL Combat Air Teaming System (CATS) Program - Updates and Discussion
- Thread starter SammyBoi
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I think he meant to say specifically w.r.t CATS-Warrior program specifically not to the whole CATS project itself, because they are involved in HAPS CATS-Infinity and swarm system ALFA-S and Hunter of CATS
Stealth is fine. It's a small aircraft with serpentine intake, twin canted tails, IWBs & all composite skin. Will probably get radar absorbing paint coating later.
The only part I am not a fan of is the intake. I would've loved to see a submerged intake like the one shown on the mockup. But that intake would have some problems of boundary layer separation. Maybe they switched to this raise intake to derisk the design.
Even with Ghatak We are moving with serpentine intake,
The final product will have composite airframes & small aesa radars & jammer i assume
I sure hope this is not the final design. They set a high bar with the mock-up design at Aero India '21 and now this...
Not too impressed with this mum-T capability myself tbh. If we are struggling with general uav itself, how much better can it be with an unmanned system pairing a manned jet ? esp when the unmanned one itself got rather limited capability (9km max alt). How do we know the uav signal won't get hijacked and you lose that immediately ?
Unmanned systems need a lot of associated technologies , high end comm across multiple domain (space ground and air) for such a system to work. Which is why only USA is capable of maintaining such a system. Without improving those capabilities, this may not work to full potential.
Unmanned systems need a lot of associated technologies , high end comm across multiple domain (space ground and air) for such a system to work. Which is why only USA is capable of maintaining such a system. Without improving those capabilities, this may not work to full potential.
Even the Russian stealth UCAV was ssot down by themselves.
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Btw SAAW is supposed to the weapon of choice..
Why isn't it inducted?
Last time we heard about it is during balakote..
After that no soild news .. Even tejas is not certified with it I guess..
It cannot be final design bcoz we're jumping 1st time into full scale jet powered UAV. HAL might be producing few more TDs toexplore different aspects.
There are many designs like this worldwide, still in experimental stage by private companies. Some not flying yet could be misleading.
> Well be exploring V-tail. It is huge, I would expect all-moving shorter tail.
> This TD is not even RCS optimised.
- The sweep angle of leading edges of wing & tail aren't much.
- Big pitot's tube on wing.
- Intake front edge is vertical & sides are semi-circular.
- Landing gear doors & other riveted panels are rectangular.
All these things woud be expected in upcoming TDs meant for RCS testing.> I would expect IWB to carry 4 BVR-AAMs & SWB to carry 1 CCM each. Light payload will force the UCAV to retreat out of battle very soon. The AAMs can miss targets due to enemy's tactics, jamming, decoys, etc.
> This size UCAV, globally made by any maker, will face threat from 4.5gen, 5gen jets also. It can't bet survival only on RF stealth.
> Manned or unmanned, it requires tactics to fight enemy jet, like maneuvering, evading enemy missile & SAM, staying out of heir NEZ (No Escape Zone). So afterburning engines coupled with lower drag wings can help, otherwise from cruise missile to subsonic jet can be easy targets.
> If this UCAV is expected to perform high AoA then again afterburner may be required to compesate for bleeding energy. And then the intake should be below or on sides, otherwise aerodynamic shadow would create low pressure, stalling the compressors.
Abhimanyu CCA:
Long range loitering munition:
RUAV :
Ah finally a desi geran ! Took way too long to customise a proven airframe. Autonomous LM should be a university level TDF like challenge mission promoted by SERB/DST etc. Could even pair up multiple same region colleges as region wide competition in asymmetric tech.
Speaking of airframes, if you make a tiny lca mk1 design, can it work like some autonomous uav LM ? the design was quite stable for a fighter jet in one particular iteration when it was being turned into mk2, I read somewhere. So that a design could work ?
Speaking of airframes, if you make a tiny lca mk1 design, can it work like some autonomous uav LM ? the design was quite stable for a fighter jet in one particular iteration when it was being turned into mk2, I read somewhere. So that a design could work ?
It's not VLO. It's designed to have a smaller RCS than LCA without using expensive Stealthy techniques. More importantly, it's supposed to be expendable.
It's a 1T aircraft, maxes out at a little over 2T. The 2 PTAEs are plenty.
HTFE-25 is for business jet class. Or even MQ-4.
If HAL wants to use this program as a platform to develop MUM-T, then they should be encouraged. Although it's not an official IAF program, it would be a good idea to support it. They think the market is for a 100 for the Mk1A, but just 20 or so would be enough.
Even if the aircraft itself is not very impressive, the underlying cloud system will be important for the future. They can use this to develop MUM-T for helicopters, for example. Or a larger drone in the future, with HTFE-25.