Aiming at the optimal placement of communication relay nodes (OPCRN) problem in manned/unmanned aerial vehicle cooperative engagement system, this paper designed a kind of fully connected broadband backbone communication topology. Firstly, problem description of OPCRN was given. Secondly, based on problem analysis, the element attributes and decision variables were defined, and a bi-level programming model including physical layer and logical layer was established. Thirdly, a hierarchical artificial bee colony (HABC) algorithm was adopted to solve the model. Finally, multiple sets of simulation experiments were carried out to prove the effectiveness and superiority of the algorithm.