Chinese UCAV/CCA/flying wing drones (ISR, A2A, A2G) thread

[Tomboy]

Do we know where that staging area with the 4 hangars / shelters was? The place where we got sneak pictures of some of them, the day before the parade.

That's right outside CBD next to the twin LG towers

 

[ACuriousPLAFan]

I listened to Yankeesama’s podcast from yesterday and they said that the air dominance drones were kept under wraps because they were real aircraft, not models.

And presumably the UADF-A, UADF-B and GJ-11/21 too? Because they were indeed showcased in the parade.

(Edit: The latest CHH podcast clarified that most of the UCAVs shown during the parade (bar GJ-11) are actually mockups, not actual airframes. This tailors with the bolded phrase.)

I've been going through footage of equipments coming out from the parade, these drones do not seem to take the same route as everything else. Noone seems to have any photograph of them post parade.

Not unlikely that they flew back under own power.

But they would still need to be driven to the nearest (military) airstrip/airbase before they can take off on their own power, right?

I'd wager that they (most) likely took some unusual routes and/or were moved in the dead of midnight/dusk where people nearby those routes weren't ready for them with cameras and smartphones when they passed through.

Of course, the most amazing thing that could happen would be temporarily turning Chang'An Avenue into a temporary airstrip where the UADS can takeoff or land right during the parade and right in front of all the visitors and VVVIPs... But, eh.

 

[Tomboy]

Of course, the most amazing thing that could happen would be temporarily turning Chang'An Avenue into a temporary airstrip where the UADS can takeoff or land during a parade, right in front of all the visitors and VVVIPs... But, eh.

I suppose if they want to pull something more impressive at Zhuhai 26' they could arrange for a fly over with drones.

 

[by78]

More high-resolution images from the parade.

 

[tphuang]

AMEN! And once again, I fundamentally agree with you. Anyone with common sense knows that we can't talk about FOC for some time to come. Unfortunately, however—depending on social media, and perhaps I hang out in the wrong places too often—not everyone has this level of insight and only sees things in black and white!

I do pity all the nonsense you have to deal with.

Based on how new this stuff is. Pretty much any new drone that has went through initial flight testing has to go through IOT&E for developing tactics and just generally for PLA to understand how it wants to utilize its platform. It's entirely possibly and maybe likely that only one of the J-10 sized drones get mass produced eventually and same with the medium sized ones.

 

[ACuriousPLAFan]

Both UADFs have internal weapons bays that appear to have enough space to carry 4x PL-15 sized missiles. They don't look large enough for 6x PL-16s even assuming PL-16s are thinner than PL-15s and have folding wings. Still that is a A2A magazine depth that matches the F-35.

A late addition:

2-3x PL-15 or 4x PL-16 in stealth mode should be plenty ideal for the larger duo, as both of them are only about J-10-sized at most.

But then, as the production of PL-15 is already terminated and its intended successor will become the new standard BVR-LRAAM across the PLAAF (and the PLAN too) - I suppose at this point, who really cares much about the former beyond clearing out the remaining stockpile?

That means having 4x PL-16 should be plenty suffcient for the larger-sized UADS-A/B that are fully-loaded in stealth mode, whereas the smaller-sized UADS-C/E in similar mode only needs 2x PL-16s (assuming that they are also equipped with IWBs of similar length).

(Meanwhile, the UADS-D doesn't seem to feature any IWB. Perhaps it will become (one of) the unmanned successor(s) to the JZ-8F?)

 

[Tomboy]

A late addition:

2-3x PL-15 or 4x PL-16 in stealth mode should be plenty ideal, as they are only about J-10-sized at most.

But then, as the production of PL-15 is already terminated and its intended successor will become the new standard BVR-LRAAM across the PLAAF (and the PLAN too) - I suppose at this point, who really cares much about the former beyond clearing out the remaining stockpile?

That means 4x PL-16 is pretty suffcient for the larger-sized UADS-A/B that are fully-loaded in stealth mode, whereas the smaller-sized UADS-C/D/E in similar mode only needs 2x PL-16s (assuming that they are also equipped with IWBs of similar length).

53432 does not have any IWB from the looks though, are there any guesses to what role that one would serve?

 

[ACuriousPLAFan]

53432 does not have any IWB from the looks though, are there any guesses to what role that one would serve?

I've edited/corrected my initial post just now.

 

[siegecrossbow]

Almost forgot about this but did Comrade Yilong comment on the drones showcased during the parade?

 

[lzmfVw]

Can any of the models do aerial refueling? That would be a desirable capability to have. It's difficult to tell just from casual inspection.

Without aerial refueling, these can only be launched from within the 1st IC, (even if these were navalized, they would still be constrained by deck space compared to launch from airbases + midair refuel), which would limit their deployment to areas where there is already a huge conventional capability overmatch.