How the Samara MGTD family will improve the performance of Russian UAVs and glide bombs

December 8 2023 21

It is reported that testing of a small gas turbine engine (MGTD-22) called “Hummingbird”, developed for promising jet drones, has begun in Samara. Why this news can be considered extremely positive and extremely promising?

As you know, Russia approached the Northern Military District as a catch-up in the field of unmanned aircraft. There seemed to be developments in UAVs of all classes, but some of them to this day remain in the form of single prototypes. The war and the urgent needs of the front for reconnaissance and attack drones of various types spurred the development of the industry, and literally out of nowhere, various design bureaus began to appear - volunteer, garage, field and university. In a short time, many projects arose, including very promising ones, but they all have one Achilles heel - dependence on imported components, Chinese, Iranian or some other.

Samara "birds"

And that’s why the press service of the Samara National Research University named after Academician S.P. Korolev sounded very positive the day before:

Comprehensive testing of the first prototype of the small-sized gas turbine engine MGTD-22 “Hummingbird”, developed at our university and intended for small, but high-speed and load-lifting jet unmanned aerial vehicles, has begun.

The most common engines used in drones today are internal combustion engines, including piston and electric. There are also jet-powered UAVs, but they are considered a relatively rare beast due to their greater complexity and high cost. Against this background, the joint development of the University Engineering Center and the small innovative enterprise “3D Cube”, co-founded by the university itself, which decided to develop a whole family of small-sized gas turbine engines with the widest possible scope for subsequent use, seems very promising.

The first in the Samara “bird house” is MGTD-22 "Hummingbird", whose mass is only 2,1 kg, maximum thrust is 220 N (22,4 kgf), length is 30,6 cm, and diameter is 11,8 cm. For 1 kg of its mass, the engine produces 10 kg of thrust, which is a very good indicator. MGTD-22 has a built-in control system, electric engine start and the ability to remotely restart during flight. The design provides the option of installing an electric generator, which will recharge the battery that powers the UAV electronics. Aviation kerosene is used as fuel for Kolibri.

However, Samarans decided not to limit themselves to just MGTD-22. In parallel, work is underway on larger and more powerful MGTD-40 "Chaika" with a thrust of 400 N (40,8 kgf) and a mass of 4 kg, as well as MGTD-100 "Eagle" with a thrust of 1 thousand H (102 kgf) and a mass of 13 kg. Why is all this very good news?

New unmanned horizons

The emergence in Russia of its own family of small-sized gas turbine engines opens a wide window of opportunity for rapid progress in the field of aviation, unmanned and even manned.

At first, if the MGTD family is launched into mass production, the critical dependence on imported power plants in unmanned aircraft, which crippled, in particular, the Altius heavy reconnaissance and strike UAV project, will be eliminated. As experts note, the gas turbine engine can later be converted into a turboshaft, turbojet or turboprop, which can be installed on drones not only of aircraft, but also of helicopter types.

Secondly, it will be possible to dramatically increase the performance characteristics of drones such as “Geraniums” or “Lancets” that are already available and actively used by Russia. Yes, MGTD are more voracious, but they will allow disposable attack drones to reach much higher speeds, making it difficult for air defense systems to intercept them.

Thirdly, with the advent of mass-produced small-sized gas turbine engines in our country, it will become quite possible to equip gliding bombs with an additional power plant. We will tell you more about such a project told earlier, citing as an example the Israeli gliding bomb SPICE 250 ER (Extended Range, i.e. increased range).

The increase in range was made possible by equipping it with a miniature turbojet engine and a fuel system (JP-8/10 fuel), which allowed the guided aircraft munition to fly from the point of release not 100, but 150 km. In other words, this is already a kind of budget hybrid between a glide bomb and a miniature cruise missile.

We could only dream of something like this, but with the advent of the Samara MGTD family, a lot can change for the better. How great it will be if gliding bombs of 500 kg or 1500 kg caliber radically increase their flight range deep behind enemy lines by installing miniature gas turbine engines!

Information

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wladimirjankov

0

8 December 2023 12: 55

How great it will be if gliding bombs of 500 kg or 1500 kg caliber radically increase their flight range deep behind enemy lines by installing miniature gas turbine engines!

They will of course increase the range, but will increase the visibility in infrared radiation for enemy air defense systems and the cost of the bomb itself.
1. mark1
  
  +3
  
  8 December 2023 19: 45
  
  Quote: wladimirjankov
  but they will increase the visibility in infrared radiation for enemy air defense systems and the cost of the bomb itself.
  
  Nothing comes for free
2. pk4815
  
  +4
  
  9 December 2023 11: 21
  
  at a range of 150 km the engine works for the first 50 km, 100 km before the target it turns off = so it will increase slightly
3. Nikolaevich I
  
  0
  
  9 December 2023 17: 12
  
  With the advent of mass-produced small-sized gas turbine engines in our country, it will become quite possible to equip gliding bombs with an additional power plant.
  
  When in 2003 “Basalt” developed the MPK in 3 versions for “cast iron” bombs, the 3rd version provided for the installation of a pulsating air-jet engine! Similar PuVRDs have been installed on a number of UAV models for a long time!
4. H.J.P.
  
  0
  
  10 December 2023 11: 02
  
  And compare this cost with a missile having the same warhead in mass.
  After all, it won’t be quite a bomb, but a mini-rocket.
zloybond

+5

8 December 2023 13: 51

Considering the extensive intelligence network of the Outskirts in Russia, such news should be a secret and not a boast. Now it will be difficult to maintain the secret and the safety of those involved. What great stupidity it is to brag about everything you can.
1. svoroponov
  
  +1
  
  10 December 2023 16: 36
  
  So what's secret here? Look, one of the Geranium modifications is already flying with a similar engine, with a maximum attack speed of 750 km per hour and a sustaining speed of 480 km per hour. It approaches the target at low altitudes and is very maneuverable. It is poorly or not captured by radars and quickly comes out of capture when their radar is detected, since it is fast and maneuverable, it goes low and there is almost no time during capture (and it is only at a short distance due to the design features and the capabilities of enemy stations today) for interception
  Bombs with turbojet engines are the same cruise missiles with a simplified control scheme and a short range. Especially for tactical tasks in close enemy rear areas. Now, if the engines show themselves, they will produce enough. These engines are very primitive with a service life of several hours.
2. anclevalico
  
  0
  
  11 December 2023 09: 18
  
  They have good AI, which was even supplied to the Turks.
populist

0

8 December 2023 22: 32

All this was done in the West about 20 years ago. Our generals need to read Western military magazines.
1. svoroponov
  
  0
  
  10 December 2023 16: 47
  
  In fact, we did a lot of things that are used at the front back in the Pioneer Houses under the USSR. So another question is who stole what from whom. New is almost forgotten old but on a modern component base and technology
  You will scold generals when you become one yourself and understand what a general is. The technology is constantly being improved, as are the methods of its application. It is impossible to foresee everything. The generals take advantage of what industry has provided them, taking into account the country’s achieved technological level.
  Look, even the West with its screwed up prodigies, with the proper use of even old Soviet weapons, loses, and even miserably.
  1. wladimirjankov
    
    0
    
    22 December 2023 17: 25
    
    The generals take advantage of what industry has provided them, taking into account the country’s achieved technological level.
    
    This is a fundamentally incorrect judgment and a dangerous delusion. It is not the military-industrial complex that should be offered by the army or navy; they should take whatever is offered to them, but the generals and admirals of the Ministry of Defense, who are responsible for the development of weapons, should set priorities, goals, tasks for army building, modernization and the creation of new types of weapons for the military-industrial complex, the government, and the president. The command of the army and navy must determine what should be in their arsenal and how they can ensure the security of the country. This is what happens in all the largest countries and armies in the world. In our country, the opposite is true, and this perverted policy and practice in matters of armament has led to the fact that our military industry for a long time (more than 20 years) has not been seriously engaged in the development and production of modern attack and reconnaissance UAVs, secure communications, satellite and ground reconnaissance , counter-battery warfare, automated artillery firing systems, UMPC, guidance and adjustment, high-precision ammunition, portable and portable and aviation electronic warfare devices, layered air defense and many other types of weapons. All this affected and still affects the course of the SVO, its losses and successes. That our military-industrial complex would not have been able to create all the range of UAVs and UMPCs necessary for the army if such a task had been assigned to it in a timely manner 20 years ago? The “technological level of the country” would not be enough, brains? But excuse me, if our military-industrial complex was able to develop and produce the Kh-101 missile system, which can fly autonomously over 6500 km and a missile caliber with a range of 4500 km, then it would certainly cope with the task of creating UAVs that are not inferior to American or Israeli ones. It’s just that no one set such a task for the military-industrial complex. Our generals considered UAVs something unserious, toys. But in China, Iran, and Turkey, their generals thought differently. And now we are forced to purchase drones from the first two countries, since we have only recently begun to actively deal with this problem ourselves. The same thing happened with the UMPC for FAB. For some reason, our generals preferred to purchase the KABs offered by Basalt, which were an order of magnitude more expensive than the UMPC. Now, when the war showed that it was impossible to do without the latter, the military-industrial complex was finally given the task of developing and producing them in the required quantity, which it quickly began to cope with. And we all began to see the results of this. Powerful and cheap FABs with UMPC flew towards the enemy. But again, time was lost. And it seems that none of the people responsible were punished. Similar stories occur with other types of weapons. To prevent this from happening, the cart should always be behind the horse, and not backwards. The military must decide what and how they should fight. They must set tasks for the military-industrial complex, and it must solve them, with the support of the government.
Avarron

+1

9 December 2023 10: 09

Give money to Igor Negoda, he has been riveting small-sized turbojet engines the size of a beer can in his garage for a long time.
wamp

+1

9 December 2023 10: 41

Where the author makes points:

"Firstly": you cannot convert a turbojet engine into a turboshaft/turboprop. You can only borrow the combustion chamber.

“Secondly”: Geraniums are designed for range and locational invisibility. Increasing flight speed by 2 times will lead to:
-- to a sharp increase in radar visibility (radars use the Doppler effect);
- to double fuel consumption per kilometer (quadrature dependence of the resistance formula...). A jet engine is very far from the efficiency of a piston engine, and size is important (for small gas turbines the efficiency is simply negligible).
Well, Geraniums weren’t made by fools.

“Thirdly” - well, the author doesn’t get along, he doesn’t understand what volumes of energy gliding bombs have (speed squared, mass, height). And the funny thing is that installing an engine transfers these bombs to the class of air-to-ground missiles, which already exist and are polished in terms of parameters and price.
1. Nikolaevich I
  
  +2
  
  9 December 2023 17: 02
  
  Quote: Wamp
  "Firstly": you cannot convert a turbojet engine into a turboshaft/turboprop. You can only borrow the combustion chamber.
  
  The author of the article may have expressed himself clumsily, but some time ago I read a message that a certain design bureau is developing a small-sized gas turbine generator, on the basis of which turboshaft and turboprop engines for light helicopters and airplanes should be produced! They have the same designations (!)... only the letter indices at the end are different!
2. DO
  
  +1
  
  9 December 2023 17: 22
  
  “Thirdly” - well, the author doesn’t get along, he doesn’t understand what volumes of energy gliding bombs have (speed squared, mass, height). And the funny thing is that installing an engine transfers these bombs to the class of air-to-ground missiles, which already exist and are polished in terms of parameters and price.
  
  The issue of increasing the range of glide bombs is critically important in counter-battery combat against long-range MLRS of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
  A glide bomb, equipped with an engine to increase range, is not at all the same as a rocket, if only because of the warhead/(engine+fuel) mass ratio. Which engine to use in this case - gas turbine engine, turbojet engine, rocket engine, a question for the relevant specialists.
  In any case, it seems that it is necessary to spend development resources on equipping glide bombs with engines.
Alexander Tutunenko

+1

9 December 2023 11: 06

Quote: zloybond
Considering the extensive intelligence network of the Outskirts in Russia, such news should be a secret and not a boast. Now it will be difficult to maintain the secret and the safety of those involved. What great stupidity it is to brag about everything you can.

Now a series of assassination attempts on developers is inevitable, what kind of idiocy, if not sabotage...
pk4815

+1

9 December 2023 11: 24

Quote: wladimirjankov
How great it will be if gliding bombs of 500 kg or 1500 kg caliber radically increase their flight range deep behind enemy lines by installing miniature gas turbine engines!

They will of course increase the range, but will increase... the cost of the bomb itself.

and will protect (save) the launching aircraft = which is several orders of magnitude more expensive than hundreds of bombs that have become more expensive
H.J.P.

+3

9 December 2023 11: 33

You need to have time to do and test it before the end of the SVO.
Even better to our gene. offensive, if it is, of course, planned.
boriz

+2

9 December 2023 12: 44

I completely agree with the previous speaker wamp.
You need to write about what you can understand.
There are many questions for this post. Here are the main ones:
At first, and what kind of engine actually was developed and began to be tested in Samara? Gas turbine engine (GTE) is a common name. When this name is used by default, it usually refers to an engine like the one found on the T-80 tank.

As experts note, the gas turbine engine can later be converted into a turboshaft, turbojet or turboprop, which can be installed on drones not only of aircraft, but also of helicopter types.

Specialists are not required to speak a language understandable to the general public; they still need to be understood correctly.
In reality, the concept of gas turbine engine includes

... turboshaft, turbojet or turboprop,...

and also a turbofan, turbofan...
In fact, this engine began undergoing flight tests in Kazan more than 3 years ago. On a drone, A-30 (as a flying laboratory). And this is already a turbojet engine, there is no need to convert it anywhere.
Secondly, there is no point in stupidly slapping these engines onto existing used UAVs. They each occupy their own niche. Geranium is a cheap device that completely fulfills its tasks. They are already working on it quite successfully, all they need is their own internal combustion engine.
Neither Geranium nor Lancet need high speed. The same Lancet at high speed will complicate aiming.
A turbojet engine requires a different design, different aerodynamics. That is, a different device. And another application concept.
Just look at the model range of any of our fighter aircraft designers during the transition from internal combustion engines to turbojet engines. At first they tried to hastily attach a turbojet engine instead of an internal combustion engine. But they quickly abandoned this. And why step on this rake again?
Thirdly, this is about the same as the second one. There is no need to compare green with soft. Just compare the SPICE series bombs and our FABs, to which planning modules are adapted.
Now (finally) they have begun to count not only their own money, but also the state’s. And the modification of the FAB simply allows the huge reserves of these weapons to be used for their intended purpose. Moreover, the cost of FAB today can be considered zero. They just already exist. And it can be considered negative, because otherwise they will soon have to be disposed of. And this is a lot of money.
There is absolutely no need to change the design of the FAB. You can add a little something. Adding a turbojet engine will be difficult and expensive. The system will rise in price several times (or rather tens of times). In addition to the small turbojet engine, there will be a power supply system, launch system, etc.
The only thing that can still be done here is to install an existing solid fuel accelerator from some kind of cruise missile at the back of the FAB. It is simple, it will work, give an increase in range by 20 - 30 percent, and then disconnect.

You did not reveal the real advantages of the new turbojet engine. Although there is a hint in the text.

The joint development of the University Engineering Center and the small innovative enterprise “3D Cube” seems very promising

That is:

As part of the project, a technology has been created for manufacturing parts of gas turbine engines and gas turbine units for industrial use using layer-by-layer laser melting using metal powder compositions of heat-resistant and aluminum alloys. A number of developed alloys are superior in strength characteristics to foreign analogues by more than 20%. Thanks to the new technology, the manufacturing time of the main engine elements was reduced by 20 times with a more than twofold reduction in the cost of their production.

In addition to expanding the range, there are also new high technologies.
We can, after all, when the money reaches real hard workers without being stolen. Well, or not very stolen.
vbgfv

0

10 December 2023 07: 29

The future lies in electric motors and high-capacity batteries.
AlOrg

0

11 January 2024 13: 01

Quote: wladimirjankov
They will of course increase the range, but will increase the visibility in infrared radiation for enemy air defense systems and the cost of the bomb itself

Well, is it not important to you that now, due to the short range, you have to risk the carrier aircraft and the pilots?