Chinese UAV/UCAV development

Tirdent said:

If so, apparently with the definitive LO nozzle now.

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It'll be interesting to see how much it deviates from the model from a few years back, which of course included a LO nozzle among other things.

If the drone in the middle really is a Wing Loong II it should give us a way of eyeballing the dimensions of the ?Sharp Sword and the supersonic/hypersonic UAV.

Edit: Furthermore, as Tirdent said, it seems like the Sharp Sword here on display seems to have a LO nozzle (albeit the picture is low resolution). Of course all of the drones here should be mock ups, however considering how many years it's been since the original Sharp Sword appeared, it is reasonable to think that development has progressed.

However, we've never had any new pictures of Sharp Sword in testing taken from the ground since the original photos we had at SAC (or was it Hongdu?), from memory?
In fact, have we even ever had any satellite pictures of Sharp Sword taken before, even of the original first prototype airframe? I don't recall any satellite pictures of Sharp Sword being released.

Tirdent said:

Curious to learn how fast it is and what propulsion system it uses!

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To maybe answer my own question, if this...



... belongs to the UAV in question, we are looking at something like Mach 3.0 to 3.3 @ 25km based on the stated temperature capability. So not hypersonic and may just about get away without a combined cycle power plant (i.e. Meteorit-style high-Mach straight turbojet).

It's obviously hard to accurately gauge the LE sweep angle from such a low resolution image, but my measurement is compatible with a Mach 3ish speed too.

I find the whole drone attack on Saudi Arabia's oil field so fascinating. Regardless of the players and politics involved, it brings up so many questions on how it was conducted. Were they using regular drones firing missiles and dropping bombs? Were they suicide drones? I think Saudi Arabia has the 2nd most advanced military in the region. Their radars couldn't detect them? You'd figure they would be pointed in that direction since there's a conflict with Yemen and they have launched missiles from there before. I'm sure China will be learning a lot from this attack. Look at the Syrian conflict where commercial drones were used to drop bombs and then China developed a drone that seems to be designed for that type of scenario.

AssassinsMace said:

I find the whole drone attack on Saudi Arabia's oil field so fascinating. Regardless of the players and politics involved, it brings up so many questions on how it was conducted. Were they using regular drones firing missiles and dropping bombs? Were they suicide drones? I think Saudi Arabia has the 2nd most advanced military in the region. Their radars couldn't detect them? You'd figure they would be pointed in that direction since there's a conflict with Yemen and they have launched missiles from there before. I'm sure China will be learning a lot from this attack. Look at the Syrian conflict where commercial drones were used to drop bombs and then China developed a drone that seems to be designed for that type of scenario.

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Reportedly the drones went under the radar. Ground clutter and the drones' small size made them very difficult to be detected.

AssassinsMace said:

I find the whole drone attack on Saudi Arabia's oil field so fascinating. Regardless of the players and politics involved, it brings up so many questions on how it was conducted. Were they using regular drones firing missiles and dropping bombs? Were they suicide drones? I think Saudi Arabia has the 2nd most advanced military in the region. Their radars couldn't detect them? You'd figure they would be pointed in that direction since there's a conflict with Yemen and they have launched missiles from there before. I'm sure China will be learning a lot from this attack. Look at the Syrian conflict where commercial drones were used to drop bombs and then China developed a drone that seems to be designed for that type of scenario.

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I thought the attack was done by cruise missiles? possibly Iranian origin?

yuxiaochen said:

I thought the attack was done by cruise missiles? possibly Iranian origin?

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I'm going by the what was first reported. If they were drones that is something note-worthy since Saudi Arabia has high tech military hardware at its disposal. The military drones on the market now are made for militaries that don't have a manned air strike capability and/or against adversaries that don't have sophisticated defenses. Drones being able to strike like was reported is a game changer if that's what happened. If so, you'll be hearing a lot of panic in the news ahead. Just look at one member in here just taunted this type of attack being used against China. And you what that means mean when they're taunting that against China? It'll be full-on paranoia that it will be happening against them.

Tirdent said:

It's obviously hard to accurately gauge the LE sweep angle from such a low resolution image, but my measurement is compatible with a Mach 3ish speed too.

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Judging from the size of the bird it probably needs to take off and land on its own instead of hitching a ride off another plane.

siegecrossbow said:

Judging from the size of the bird it probably needs to take off and land on its own instead of hitching a ride off another plane.

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It doesn't look too much bigger than the D-21, does it?