It was hardly reported in the media that Ghatak UCAV will be using fluidic thrust vectoring technology, which may enable it to do away with any moving parts.


Fluidic thrust Vectoring is a thrust Vectoring technique employs general fluid phenomena of wall attachment and stream interaction in specially designed devices to perform the functions of sensing, logic and control. Wall attachment is a phenomenon of jet fluid to get physically attracted towards a surface and deviate from it's path. A picture attached below can help understand this. The jet fluid will follow an adjacent surface's shape as it's director. Stream interaction is a phenomenon where two streams of fluid having different angular directions, can influence each other for changing their directions.


In an aircraft the main stream would be exhausts of an engine , if a small stream is passed over it from annular nozzles located around the main stream. This can influence change in direction.


In very simple words we have seen how running tap water changes it's directing when we take our comb or a rubber balloon near it. Similar phenomenon will be used instead of a moving nozzle for thrust vectoring. In Su-30MKI we see a movable nozzle that directs thrust in multiple directions enabling the fighter aircraft to manoeuvre during stall when regular control surfaces become ineffective.

Compared to a movable nozzle Fluidic thrust Vectoring is less expensive. Since the aircraft using Fluidic thrust Vectoring doesn't need moving parts, it increases structural rigidity and decreases weight. It has great flexibility, rapid response. It will dramatically increase the level of stealth of Ghatak UCAV.


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