Chinese Loyal Wingman (sensor, A2A and A2G) UAV/UCAV thread
- Thread starter VESSEL
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This will be a new thread for Loyal Wingman, and High End (stealthy, jet powered etc) UCAV development.
Old thread here:
Thread for lower end UAVs like MALE, HALE, small drones, suicide drones, rotary drones, solar powered drones, civil drones here:
Inevitably there will be a bit of overlap between this thread and the new lower end UAV thread, but I think it'll be useful to make an effort to differentiate now.
Old thread here:
Chinese UAV/UCAV development
Possible. We'll find out soon. It will be very interesting if it turns out to be Belarus. :cool:
www.sinodefenceforum.com
Thread for lower end UAVs like MALE, HALE, small drones, suicide drones, rotary drones, solar powered drones, civil drones here:
Chinese MALE, HALE (and rotary, small, suicide) UAV/UCAV thread
New thread for MALE, HALE, small drones, suicide drones, rotary drones, solar powered drones, civil drones here. Old thread here: https://www.sinodefenceforum.com/t/chinese-uav-ucav-non-loyal-wingman-development.3526/page-655 Thread for loyal wingman and high end drones here...
www.sinodefenceforum.com
Inevitably there will be a bit of overlap between this thread and the new lower end UAV thread, but I think it'll be useful to make an effort to differentiate now.
Engine inlet on top of the fuselage like the XQ-58 and FH-97... Could be more useful as a carrier-based strike UCAV than a carrier-based (loyal wingman) fighter UCAV?
I.e. USN's UCLASS-equivalent.
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Intake isn't a very good determinant of role.
For strike UCAVs, you generally wouldn't need so many control surfaces, or such a fighter like fuselage profile -- you'd go with a flying wing or cranked kite flying wing instead to maximize range and payload.
After all, a loyal wingman fighter UCAV isn't going to be doing that much maneuvering, so a top mounted intake is pretty reasonable.
In any case, as this thing is supposedly only 3 tons, it's more likely that it is just a technology demonstrator.
Some people think that it’s good for 076.
A 3 ton UAV is tiny and wouldn't require something the size of a 076 to launch and recover, not to mention have marginal operational utility. XQ-58 is 2.7 tons and is rather small, and its performance is still that of a tech demonstrator more than a true operational combat ready aircraft, and also has the benefit of being rocket launched and parachute recovered (which means more space for internal fuel), whereas this thing has landing gear and an arresting hook meaning chances are it'll have a far lower range as well.
If it could be scaled up to 15-20 tons, then that would be a proper aircraft worth procuring, or even something smaller like 10 tons
Nothing happened to it.
But there are likely to be multiple categories of high end loyal wingman type drones in the future, and likely to have multiple developmental stops and competing models along the way.
FH-97A is just one of them that they've happened to reveal, but we have no indication whether the PLA are buying it or not.
Chances are there are many more that is being worked on which we don't know about, and which will be revealed in time.
Considering how rabid the PLA can be about OPSEC, they might have pillaged through all of their drone design proposals, found one that they were never going to use, and then slapped it on their trade show stall because it kind of looks like the Australian drone and there's probably people out there who want to buy that drone but know Australia won't sell to them.