Since its inception in the early 20th century, military drones have undergone several technological innovations and practical tests, gradually evolving from simple radio controlled aircraft to a diversified military drone system with intelligent decision-making, multi functional combat capabilities. Among them, aerial combat drones, with their unique advantages, occupy an important position in today's air combat and become a key force that can change the situation and determine the outcome. This article takes existing aerial combat drones in various countries as an example to interpret their combat characteristics and development trends. With the development of drone technology, aerial combat drones have improved their flight speed, enhanced their maneuverability and stealth breakthrough capabilities, and improved their intelligent decision-making level on the basis of traditional reconnaissance drones and reconnaissance integrated drones. They have gradually become an air force with combat capabilities comparable to manned fighter jets. In the development of aerial combat drones, the United States is at the forefront of the world, gradually developing a series of aerial combat drones around combat applications such as aerial dogfighting, manned/drone coordination, and enemy interference strikes. Russia and Türkiye followed suit and developed their own air combat UAVs to prepare for future unmanned air combat. The XQ-62A VISTA drone is an aerial combat drone developed by the US Air Force Research Laboratory based on the F-16 fighter jet, integrating machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) technology. This aircraft has air-to-air combat capabilities and has simulated direct combat with manned F-16 fighter jets, demonstrating strong autonomous air combat capabilities. It is a precedent for manned fighter jets to be "modified" into intelligent unmanned combat aircraft. The XQ-58A "Valkyrie" drone is a "loyal wingman" developed by the US Air Force Research Laboratory in collaboration with a private technology company, aimed at providing coordinated combat capabilities for manned fighter jets. In the US Navy's "Jade Flag 2024" military exercise, the XQ-58A served as a forward deployed sensing platform, transmitting critical targeting data to F-35B and other manned fighter jets, demonstrating its potential for practical application. This aircraft can provide strong support for manned fighter jets such as F-22 and F-35, or conduct reconnaissance in enemy defense zones to provide precise intelligence for manned fighter jets, or attract enemy air defense firepower to create attack opportunities. Similar to the XQ-58A drone, the XQ-67A drone is designed to build a manned/unmanned aerial vehicle collaborative combat mode. The aircraft has high stealth performance and can effectively evade enemy radar detection; Having a long-range advantage, it can penetrate deep into enemy territory to carry out missions, and coordinate operations under the command of manned fighter jets. In addition, the aircraft can undertake reconnaissance, decoy, attack and other tasks, providing combat support for our own manned fighter jets. The Russian S-70 Hunter is a heavy stealth unmanned combat aircraft developed by the Sukhoi Design Bureau, mainly used for reconnaissance, strike, and electronic warfare missions, and can cooperate with manned fighter jets such as the Su-57. The aircraft adopts a flying wing aerodynamic layout and has good stealth performance. It can penetrate deep into enemy territory to carry out missions. The fuselage can carry 3 tons of bombs or missiles, and is equipped with a multi-purpose active phased array radar, electro-optical/infrared reconnaissance equipment, and radio reconnaissance equipment. It can simultaneously track and strike multiple air, sea, and ground targets. Since its debut in July 2022, Türkiye's "Red Apple" UAV has been positioned as a stealth attack UAV. The aircraft can carry up to 1.5 tons of guided weapons, including air-to-air missiles, air to ground missiles, cruise missiles, and intelligent remote-controlled bombs, to perform diverse combat missions. In the future, this aircraft has the potential to serve as a "loyal wingman" and collaborate with manned fighter jets in combat. The excellent stealth design features of aerial combat unmanned aerial vehicles. The above-mentioned aerial combat drones all practice the concept of stealth design, making every effort to reduce radar cross section and strive to hide in the enemy's tight radar detection network. Among them, the XQ-58A adopts a trapezoidal fuselage, equipped with a swept back main wing and a V-shaped tail wing. There is an S-shaped air intake design above the back of the aircraft, which reduces the reflection path of radar waves from a structural perspective. The Russian S-70 Hunter adopts a flying wing aerodynamic layout, with a body made of a large amount of composite materials and coated with absorbing materials, further reducing the scattering and echo intensity of radar waves. At the same time, in order to maintain maximum stealth performance, these drones generally abandon the use of external weapons, effectively avoiding the damage of external weapons to their stealth appearance and enhancing their battlefield survivability. Highly intelligent autonomous operation. Currently, aerial combat drones are moving towards autonomy. By integrating machine learning, they can respond in real-time to simulated threats in air-to-air combat scenarios, accurately identify target types, quickly assess threat levels, and autonomously plan the optimal combat path. In terms of collaborative combat, aerial combat drones can cooperate with other drones or manned fighter jets to build a "loyal wingman" combat mode. Strong speed and high maneuverability. Air combat drones have high-speed flight capabilities and can quickly reach the core area of the battlefield or quickly escape danger in critical moments. High maneuverability is another advantage, allowing it to flexibly avoid enemy attacks in complex and changing air combat environments, and to carry out precise strikes on targets with tricky angles and agile movements. Balancing low cost and consumables. At the beginning of designing aerial combat drones, countries have taken cost control into consideration, striving to create cost-effective aerial combat weapons. This enables aerial combat drones to be deployed as consumable assets in high-risk missions. Even in the face of losses, it will not cause high casualties and equipment damage costs like manned fighter jets, greatly reducing operational risks and providing more flexibility for combat decision-making. Strong multitasking ability. The modern battlefield environment is complex and ever-changing, which puts higher demands on the task execution capability of unmanned aerial vehicles. Air combat unmanned aerial vehicles can not only perform reconnaissance and strike missions simultaneously, launching attacks at the moment of discovering targets, but also flexibly switch mission modes to perform tasks such as air combat, ground attack, and electronic warfare. The development trend of aerial combat drones is based on the characteristics of existing aerial combat drones, and the future aerial combat drones will present the following development trends. The level of intelligence has made a leap forward. Future aerial combat drones will explore the application of artificial intelligence in flight control and simulation confrontation. By deeply integrating artificial intelligence technology, the speed and accuracy of target recognition and threat assessment will be further improved. At the same time, with the help of a larger and more accurate target feature database and advanced deep learning algorithms, aerial combat drones can recognize targets in various complex environments in a shorter time. Its task planning will be more autonomous, flexible, and intelligent, and can be adjusted in real-time according to changes in the battlefield situation. Invisibility performance upgrade. In terms of exterior design, future air combat unmanned aerial vehicles pursue better aerodynamic design and stealth performance, which may result in a simpler and smoother integrated appearance, reducing structures that may generate radar reflection cross sections, and achieving higher levels of stealth in all frequency bands, further enhancing battlefield survivability. Enhanced high-speed and high maneuverability performance. The power system of future aerial combat drones will undergo innovation, with new engines such as variable cycle engines and scramjet engines being widely used. Its flight speed is expected to break through the limitations of existing technology, reaching hypersonic levels, thereby significantly reducing the time for drones to reach the battlefield and achieving rapid penetration. At the same time, with the help of advanced flight control systems and structural optimization brought by new materials, future aerial combat drones are expected to complete more complex and agile maneuvering actions, be more flexible in avoiding enemy attacks, and find the best attack timing, thus occupying the initiative in aerial combat. Normalization of cluster collaborative operations. Future air combat will no longer be single player confrontation, but a systematic cluster combat. Air combat drones utilize advanced communication technology and collaborative algorithms to enable real-time information sharing and precise division of combat tasks among drone clusters. For example, during reconnaissance missions, multiple drones can be responsible for searching different areas, achieving all-round and blind spot reconnaissance coverage; In attack operations, some drones can serve as bait to attract enemy air defense firepower and create favorable attack opportunities for other drones carrying attack payloads. Diversified task payloads. Faced with the complex and ever-changing demands of modern battlefields, the mission payloads of future aerial combat drones will continue to be enriched and refined. In addition to existing payloads such as reconnaissance, strike, and electronic warfare, new payloads targeting specific combat scenarios and mission objectives will also emerge. At the same time, the degree of customization of task payloads will also be further improved. Air combat drones can quickly and flexibly combine and configure different mission payloads according to different combat mission requirements. From its initial simple prototype development to presenting a diverse development trend, aerial combat drones have emerged in modern warfare with advanced technological features such as stealth, high speed, and intelligence. In the future, with continuous research and development investment from various countries, aerial combat drones are expected to rewrite the face of future warfare and bring more changes and possibilities to the military field. (New Society)