Zhang Ming Zhao Nan Zhang Guoqiang

  The landing of carrier-based fighter jets is known as the "dance on the tip of a knife".

Driven by the needs of the battlefield, the types of carrier-based aircraft have been further expanded, and carrier-based early warning aircraft, carrier-based electronic warfare aircraft, carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft, and carrier-based anti-submarine aircraft have emerged.

  The emergence of so many types of carrier-based aircraft has not only made the systematic training of carrier-based aircraft more and more complicated, but also increased the difficulty of landing on the ship after completing the task of "returning to the nest".

The space on the platform is limited, the posture is unstable, the pilots’ physical energy is consumed in training or actual combat, and the control actions are imprecise, and bad sea conditions or bad weather may occur at any time, which makes the “recovery” of carrier-based aircraft even more difficult.

  As a result, the landing guidance system has gradually become the "standard" of modern aircraft carriers, and is playing an increasingly important role.

To a certain extent, the efficiency of the landing guidance system directly affects the combat effectiveness of the carrier-based aircraft team, which also makes the function and performance of the carrier-based aircraft landing guidance system continuously optimized and upgraded since its birth.

  While other large maritime mobile platforms can also take off and land fighters, in general, the development of landing guidance systems used by aircraft carriers is more typical.

So, what is the development process of the landing guidance system on the aircraft carrier?

Please see interpretation.

  On the returning fighter, what does the aircraft carrier in the vast ocean look like in the eyes of the pilot?

The most common answer is - "like a leaf".

  If you have ever piloted a fighter jet on a ship in high winds and rough waves, the pilot's answer will be more vivid: "From the air, the aircraft carrier is like a leaf that is constantly swaying by the waves and the wind and rain."

  There is no wind and three feet of waves at sea.

One can imagine the difficulty for a pilot driving a carrier-based fighter jet to approach from the air at a relatively high speed and land on this swaying "leaf" in such an environment.

  To do this, on the one hand, rigorous high-intensity training is indispensable.

On the other hand, the command and guidance from the aircraft carrier is equally important.

This kind of guidance includes not only the prompting of the landing commander's voice or gesture actions, but also the assistance of some professional facilities and equipment.

The carrier-based aircraft landing guidance system was originally designed for this purpose.

  Aircraft carriers have been evolving for nearly a century as battlefield needs evolved and technology developed.

Correspondingly, carrier-based aircraft have expanded from propeller propulsion to jet engine propulsion.

In addition to manned carrier-based aircraft, the work of various countries to promote drones on ships has also been in full swing in recent years.

  These developments and changes are also reflected in the development of the landing guidance system.

From manual guidance to fully automatic landing of auxiliary carrier-based aircraft, various technologies have changed from simple to complex, from inexperienced to mature, and equipment and facilities have gradually become a system from "fighting each other" to "grip your fingers into fists".

In this process, people have become more and more aware that building an efficient and "excellent" landing guidance system is one of the prerequisites for an aircraft carrier and even an aircraft carrier formation to form a strong combat power.

  Looking at this process, the application of some new technologies and the installation of new equipment are crucial.

It can be said that the development process of the landing guidance system is the process of applying new technologies and new equipment.

It is precisely because of the continuous "testing the water" and maturity of new technologies and new equipment that the "dance on the tip of the knife" of carrier-based aircraft landing has become more and more freely retractable.

  Generally speaking, the development of aircraft carrier landing guidance system has gone through the following four stages.

  Manual landing guidance stage.

Before the 1950s, most aircraft carriers carried propeller-based aircraft.

Due to the slow flight speed of the carrier-based aircraft at that time, the landing commander was required to guide the carrier-based aircraft in the final stage of landing.

This guidance is mostly manual guidance.

At first, the landing commander signaled by making certain gestures.

Later, in order to make the signals sent out more intuitive and obvious, the landing commander began to hold colored signal beats or signal boards for guidance.

When landing at night, the landing commander is guided by a neon light tube in his hand.

  The early manual landing guidance, without the introduction of radio communication equipment, was mainly completed by the experience of pilots and guides.

Due to the changeable weather at sea, this kind of guidance has great uncertainty in the success rate.

According to statistics from relevant agencies, during World War II, an average of 50 landings of carrier-based aircraft would have an accident.

This is mainly because, relying on manual guidance, the pilot cannot ensure that the deviation correction signal provided by the landing commander can be seen in time.

Another reason is that the carrier-based aircraft at that time mostly adopted the rear three-point landing gear design, which caused the aircraft to maintain poor direction after landing on the ship, and was prone to sideslip or yaw, and even rolled over or collided with other parked aircraft carriers. on the plane.

  Semi-automatic landing guidance phase.

After the 1950s, the rise of jet carrier aircraft.

Due to the fast flight speed of jet carrier aircraft, the time for pilots to observe, analyze and judge during the landing process is greatly reduced, which greatly increases the risk of landing.

In order to adapt to this change, at this stage, optical aids and radar aids appeared.

A typical example of an optical landing aid device is a Fresnel lens.

By scientifically setting a row of traffic lights on the aircraft carrier, it can form a landslide surface composed of multiple light layers in the air, and the aircraft can slide down along the designated light layers, which can basically ensure that the carrier-based aircraft is in the air before landing. within the correct glide path.

  Radar landing aid equipment consists of airborne and shipborne equipment.

The carrier-based radar can measure the actual position and motion parameters of the aircraft, and combine with the motion parameters of the aircraft carrier to calculate the route that the aircraft should fly when it slides.

By comparing the corresponding flight path and the actual flight trajectory, the radar-assisted landing equipment can also provide deviation information for the carrier-based aircraft landing, so that the carrier-based aircraft can adjust and correct the deviation in time.

  The successful development and use of optical landing aid equipment has reduced the landing accident rate on aircraft carriers at this stage from 2% during World War II to about 0.5%.

At this stage, the slanted deck of the aircraft carrier appeared, which increased the recovery opportunity for the aircraft that made mistakes in landing, and reduced the accident rate to below 0.1%.

  The development and use of radar-assisted landing equipment has effectively solved the problem of yaw and accuracy correction of carrier-based aircraft when landing, and further reduced the landing accident rate.

Therefore, although the landing risk of jet aircraft with higher speed increases, the accident rate of carrier-based aircraft landing in this period did not increase, but decreased.

Of course, there are also reasons why jet carrier aircraft began to use the front three-point landing gear design.

  Fully automatic landing guidance phase.

In the early 1980s, with the further improvement of radar and computer technology, a number of new landing guidance radars were successfully developed and put into use on aircraft carriers, marking the arrival of the era of fully automatic landing guidance.

The landing guidance system system in this period was more complete, including a series of radar systems such as instrument landing radar system, air traffic control radar system, precision approach control radar system, etc., as well as air tactical navigation system, instrument carrier landing system, data chain, improved optical landing assistance system, etc.

All kinds of equipment complement each other and back up each other, and the obtained data is processed comprehensively to jointly provide a basis for aircraft landing.

  The fully automatic landing guidance system has been put into use, theoretically enabling the carrier-based aircraft to land under the weather conditions with complex sea conditions and low visibility.

This is mainly because the landing guidance system at this time can provide more guidance information. After the carrier aircraft receives the information, its flight control system can respond quickly, calculate the control command to correct the deviation of the route, and then control the power system and the airframe by controlling the power system and the airframe. The airfoil responds, correcting the deviation.

  At this stage, the more representative is the second-generation fully automatic landing guidance system in the United States - AN/SPN-46.

The system passed the test in the late 1980s and guided the carrier-based aircraft to complete the landing action under the sea conditions with low visibility and large amplitude of pitch, roll, heave and heave of the aircraft carrier deck.

However, the system also exposed certain problems. There is still a lot of error in the landing position given by it. This error makes the pilots very worried, so the efficiency of the system is not high.

  In order to solve this problem, the US aircraft carrier has added some other landing systems, including the use of scattered pitch and azimuth signal transmitters to provide a reference for the pilot to calibrate the flight route and adjust the landing attitude.

  Russia is also developing a fully automatic landing guidance system.

The full name of the automatic guided landing system put into use by the aircraft carrier Kuznetsov is the "Resistor K-4" integrated system of flight command, navigation and landing guidance for the aviation near-ship airspace.

In addition to the "cake bucket"-shaped air tactical navigation system on the main mast, the "Resistor K-4" automatic guided landing system also includes the "Sky Sentinel" phased array radar and "Top Plate" three-coordinate radar, as well as precision Field tracking radar, instrument carrier landing system and port side Fresnel lens optical landing aid system.

  In terms of the composition of the fully automatic landing guidance system, the overall settings of various countries are different. For example, the carrier-based aircraft landing guidance system of the French aircraft carrier is slightly simplified, mainly relying on the air tactical navigation system, search radar, and Fresnel lens optical assistance. The "three axes" of the drop system are used to complete the guidance.

  Joint fully automatic landing guidance phase.

At the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, the aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft of some countries added the global satellite navigation function on the basis of the original automatic landing guidance system.

This enables the carrier-based aircraft to have a new source of data when they land on the ship. By comparing with the data obtained by the original navigation system on the aircraft, the relative landing point can be determined in advance, and the precise position of the aircraft carrier in motion can be provided.

  The purpose of giving the system global satellite navigation function is of course more than that. The landing guidance system at this stage focuses more on adaptability, in terms of accuracy, rapid deployment, weather and terrain resistance, survivability, easy maintenance, and interoperability. have higher requirements.

The ultimate aim is to reduce the impact of factors such as space and visibility on the operation of the aircraft, enabling the aircraft to land on any suitable land or sea-based platform in the world.

  At present, on aircraft carriers equipped with various guidance methods such as global satellite navigation systems and laser landing aid systems, U.S. fighter jets have conducted automatic landing tests at sea, proving the effectiveness of this type of landing guidance system.

According to the development plan disclosed by the navy, the joint fully automatic landing guidance system will gradually replace the functions of the instrument landing system and precision approach radar on the aircraft carrier when it matures, making the landing guidance system more simple and efficient.

In this process, the US Navy still has many problems that need to be solved one by one.

  In short, with the proposal of the current new maritime combat concept, especially the highlight of the role of light aircraft carriers, and the further increase in the speed of carrier-based aircraft, the situation facing the landing guidance will be more complicated.

The characteristics of drones on ships and the increasingly fierce future maritime operations have put forward higher requirements for ship landing guidance technology.

It is foreseeable that with the development of high technology, especially artificial intelligence, it will become inevitable to hand over more work to highly automated machines, greatly reduce pilot intervention, and achieve automatic landing of carrier-based aircraft and drones. trend.

Smarter, more efficient, and safer, allowing fighters to form a closed loop of intelligent algorithm control with the landing guidance equipment during the landing process, so as to achieve precise landing, this development path has been very clear.