"Reconnaissance Deterrence" - "Unmanned" will win the future

On April 14, 2020, the Center for Strategic and Budget Assessment (CSBA) released a report titled "Reconnaissance Deterrence: The Key Role of UAVs in the Confrontation of Great Powers", which proposed a new concept of "Deterrence by Detection", which is to use long-term unmanned agencies to build real-time situational awareness of key areas to deter opponents.

1. Background

The United States believes that it is returningIn the context of the era of "competition for great powers", affected by time and space factors, it is difficult to solve the problem of being unable to respond in a timely manner due to insufficient early warning. The United States needs to have long-term continuous surveillance capabilities in certain critical areas, rather than intermittent reconnaissance coverage.

Building a real-time situational awareness network will help the United States provide early warnings for potential attacks, prepare for timely responses for front-line deployment troops, and also effectively deter potential attacks. To make up for this capability gap,CSBA proposed a new concept of "reconnaissance deterrence" and used long-distance drones to build a real-time situational awareness network for key areas, pointing out that this is a practical, effective and fast and cost-effective means.

two,"Reconnaissance Deterrence" concept

The basic logic of the concept of "reconnaissance deterrence" is that if the opponent knows that they are being monitored, they are less likely to take action.

three,UAV Application under the concept of "reconnaissance deterrence"

(I) The US Department of Defense divides drones into five categories based on size, range, speed, endurance and general capacity.Large-scale drones of Class 4 and Class 5 meet this mission requirements.

surface1 U.S. Department of Defense UAV Classification

in,Class 1 to 3 drones are defined as “low, slow, small” drones. Class 1 and Class 2 drones (such as RQ-11 Raven and Scan Eagle drones) have short combat radius and endurance, and are usually used for tactical reconnaissance missions or limited-range military uses. Class 3 drones (such as RQ-7 "Shadow" and RQ-21 "Black Jack" drones) have stronger range and capabilities than Class 1 and 2 drones, but their sensor load, load and endurance are not enough to undertake the task of real-time situational awareness of the vast geographical area. Class 4 and Class 5 are large, long-distance, long-range drones, suitable for surveillance tasks of this concept. With the support of satellite communication networks, Class 4 and Class 5 drones (such as the RQ-4 Global Hawk and the MQ-4C Hisense drone) can operate outside the range of sight and can operate for a long time thousands of miles away from the base without refueling. Class 4 and Class 5 drones with a flight ratio of 30,000 to 60,000 feet and a battery life of 20 to 36 hours are suitable for this mission.

picture2 The US Air Force's Global Hawk drone

picture3 The U.S. Navy's Hisense drone

picture4 The U.S. Army's "Grey Eagle" UAV

Build an intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance network for continuous surveillance in key areas,The new combat concept of "reconnaissance deterrence" cannot solve all problems, but at present it is a practical and economical way to deal with competition from major powers, and the direction is correct.