Abstract:

The concepts of collaborative combat Unmanned Aerial Vehicles （UAVs） have been widely discussed in recent years. Entities such as the United States， Russia， and Europe are competing in the development of UAVs featured by enhanced collaboration and high performance. A cutting edge hotspot for investigation on the corresponding key technologies is forming in the region of aviation equipment. The differences in usages， mission capabilities， and technological features of collaborative combat UAVs compared to traditional UAVs have sparked new discussions and reconsiderations. This paper traces the evolution history of military UAVs by focusing on the transformation of human-machine relationships and the expansion of UAVs’ capabilities. The development requirements emerged in the context of great power competition for future UAVs， as well as the capability demands and key technologies which give definitions on high-performance collaborative combat UAVs， are analyzed. Moreover， the design orientations that worth attention， such as autonomy/collaboration， decentralization/centralization and high performance/low cost， are discussed. Recommendations for future development of high-performance collaborative combat UAVs are also proposed.

Key words: UAV, high performance, collaborative combat, autonomy design, human-machine relationship