Chinese UAV/UCAV development

vincent said:

Check the pics of the prototype EMAL from before. It is the thicker one

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I agree it should be the thicker one. According to a previous post, there are some that believe the narrow one is also EMALS but of a different type. I was initially keeping this as a possibility but now believe it couldnt be EMALS after realising the narrow trench I saw in the earlier pictures would be too narrow for EMALS.

Well soon helicopter will be replaced with Heli Drone allowing it to be carried by type 56. More work still to be done but Avicopter should be able to finish development soon. From Henri K blog

Interestingly the video shot show tracking of Submarine periscope




At the last show in Zhuhai that took place in early November, the China Helicopter Research and Development Institute (CHRDI), the research firm specializing in the rotating wing of the AVIC group, presented its armed helicopter drone called AV500W.

This military variant is derived from another helicidone of the CHRDI, the AV500, itself developed from a U8 drone designed by the same institute. According to the official description, the civil version of AV500W weighs a maximum of 470 kg on take-off and can carry up to 160 kg of payloads, including 120 kg of equipment, including an optronic ball, SAR radar and other devices Communication.

The drone is able to reach 4,000 meters of altitude and fly at a cruising speed of 120 km / h, with a maximum speed of 170 km / h. It is controllable by radio link in a radius between 50 and 200 kilometers, and has a range of 6 hours in flight with 80 kg of cargo, or 8 hours for 55 kg.

The CHRDI took two years to develop, and the AV500W armed version was upgraded to carry specially developed ammunition such as 6-kg and 10-kg Air-Ground missiles to attack targets on Range of 5 kilometers.

Its flight control system is designed to align with the requirements of 2-3 level self-propelled flight set by the US Army. The drone can thus take off and land in full autonomy, modify and re-plan its route online, and automatically return to the starting point if the control link is interrupted.

The China Rescue and Salvage (CRS) of the Chinese Ministry of Transport and a division of the Chinese navy have put an option to purchase the civil version AV500. The latter has already carried out test flights at the Alxa league in Inner Mongolia and then near Nan'ao Island to check the drone's ability to fly at high altitudes and in maritime conditions under a wind of Level 7 on the Beaufort scale (50 to 61 km / h).

As for the armed version AV500W, two Saudi delegations, ADASI of the Ministry of Defense of the United Arab Emirates, as well as the intelligence services of Namibia and Malawi, all showed great interest in the craft and approached Of the CATIC for technical details, during the Zhuhai Fair. It is unclear at this time whether they will follow up on this still developing program.


Foreign delegations in front of drone helicopter AV500W


The case to follow.

Henri K.

More Toys Come to Light

A.Man said:

More Toys Come to Light

View attachment 34537

View attachment 34538

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FYI those are old photos from a few years back.

Hendrik_2000 said:

Well soon helicopter will be replaced with Heli Drone allowing it to be carried by type 56.

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The 056 has enough space to carry a heli-drone like it has enough space to carry a full-sized helicopter, which is to say, not at all. Unless you are counting the helipad itself of course.

The 056 has enough space to carry a heli-drone like it has enough space to carry a full-sized helicopter, which is to say, not at all. Unless you are counting the helipad itself of course.

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Based on the man standing next to the helidrone the height is roughly 2 m and length 4 m the most.
Anybody has the hanger dimension?

Hendrik_2000 said:

Based on the man standing next to the helidrone the height is roughly 2 m and length 4 m the most.
Anybody has the hanger dimension?

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The 056 does not have a hangar. Those two spaces facing the helipad are torpedo rooms and are just wide enough for the torpedo launcher to swing out to fire torpedoes without hitting an interior wall. If you want to turn them into UAV hangars then you have to sacrifice the torpedo launchers.

That torpedo room has extra spaced but the door need to be widen and reposition

Hendrik_2000 said:

Based on the man standing next to the helidrone the height is roughly 2 m and length 4 m the most.
Anybody has the hanger dimension?

Click to expand...

Based on pictures, the doors should be easily able to accommodate the heli drone. But I believe the space between the two doors is currently used as a mini conference room/study (on the vanilla version in any case, unsure if that's the same with the ASW version), so they will need to remove that (which shouldn't be hard) to clear some room to keep the drone.

Problem is I just don't see that drone being of much use. It's too puny to carry any truly useful payload and will have pretty poor range and endurance even if you do strap somethinh useful to it.

For ASW work, I think a Z9 sized heli drone is realistically the smallest you can go without seriously compromising utility.

The heli drone in the above pictures are more useful for things like FOBs or getting a dedicated tracked carrier so it could become a quick reaction air recon unit for armour formations.

I think the US troops manning FOBs in Afghanistan would most certainly love to have a few of these at their disposal, especially in the mountains far from a coast or friendly major air base.

Hendrik_2000 said:

Well soon helicopter will be replaced with Heli Drone allowing it to be carried by type 56. More work still to be done but Avicopter should be able to finish development soon. From Henri K blog

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Interestingly the video shot show tracking of Submarine periscope

At the last show in Zhuhai that took place in early November, the China Helicopter Research and Development Institute (CHRDI), the research firm specializing in the rotating wing of the AVIC group, presented its armed helicopter drone called AV500W.

This military variant is derived from another helicidone of the CHRDI, the AV500, itself developed from a U8 drone designed by the same institute. According to the official description, the civil version of AV500W weighs a maximum of 470 kg on take-off and can carry up to 160 kg of payloads, including 120 kg of equipment, including an optronic ball, SAR radar and other devices Communication.

The drone is able to reach 4,000 meters of altitude and fly at a cruising speed of 120 km / h, with a maximum speed of 170 km / h. It is controllable by radio link in a radius between 50 and 200 kilometers, and has a range of 6 hours in flight with 80 kg of cargo, or 8 hours for 55 kg.

The CHRDI took two years to develop, and the AV500W armed version was upgraded to carry specially developed ammunition such as 6-kg and 10-kg Air-Ground missiles to attack targets on Range of 5 kilometers.

Its flight control system is designed to align with the requirements of 2-3 level self-propelled flight set by the US Army. The drone can thus take off and land in full autonomy, modify and re-plan its route online, and automatically return to the starting point if the control link is interrupted.

The China Rescue and Salvage (CRS) of the Chinese Ministry of Transport and a division of the Chinese navy have put an option to purchase the civil version AV500. The latter has already carried out test flights at the Alxa league in Inner Mongolia and then near Nan'ao Island to check the drone's ability to fly at high altitudes and in maritime conditions under a wind of Level 7 on the Beaufort scale (50 to 61 km / h).

As for the armed version AV500W, two Saudi delegations, ADASI of the Ministry of Defense of the United Arab Emirates, as well as the intelligence services of Namibia and Malawi, all showed great interest in the craft and approached Of the CATIC for technical details, during the Zhuhai Fair. It is unclear at this time whether they will follow up on this still developing program.


Foreign delegations in front of drone helicopter AV500W


The case to follow.

Henri K.

Click to expand...

How cute..I want one for X-mas!