Chinese UAV/UCAV development

sndef888 said:

Does anyone know what these UAVs are and whether they are in active service?

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1, Divine Eagle, high altitude, long endurance, surveillance only… should be in service

2, WZ-7 Soar Dragon, high altitude, long endurance, surveillance only… in service

3, GL-11 sharp sword, stealth UCAV… in service

4, seems like a WZ-7 with different joined tandem wing design

5, WJ-700, UCAV… should be in testing

6, Cloud shadow / Wing Loong - 10, UCAV… should be in service

If anyone know more and I have been incorrect, please help add to / correct the info thanks!

Mt1701d said:

1, Divine Eagle, high altitude, long endurance, surveillance only… should be in service

2, WZ-7 Soar Dragon, high altitude, long endurance, surveillance only… in service

3, GL-11 sharp sword, stealth UCAV… in service

4, seems like a WZ-7 with different joined tandem wing design

5, WJ-700, UCAV… should be in testing

6, Cloud shadow / Wing Loong - 10, UCAV… should be in service

If anyone know more and I have been incorrect, please help add to / correct the info thanks!

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Different in what way? In my opinion it is just a standard Soaring Dragon but since we don’t see its side profile that often, it may appear weird.

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11226p said:

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I think it's the other way around. The no.4 airframe is the demonstrator, and no.2 is the final product.

by78 said:

I think it's the other way around. The no.4 airframe is the demonstrator, and no.2 is the final product.

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Number 4 is soaring dragon. Number 2 is a very different bird and much much smaller in size. In fact I don’t even think that number 2 is developed by Guizhou. The only similarity between 2 and 4 is that both use joined tandem wings.

by78 said:

I think it's the other way around. The no.4 airframe is the demonstrator, and no.2 is the final product.

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I think this is correct. Based on this satellite imagery from almost 2 years ago you can clearly see the 2 tails of the deployed version.


In my mind no. 4 is clearly the one shown in this photo where it has only one tail as opposed to the 2 we can see on almost every other photo.



That being said WZ-7/EA-9/Soaring Dragon is one of the drones we know very little about and photos are kind of rare. So now I am actually not that sure if it is actually a predecessor or maybe even a rival bid. I don't exactly recall the discussion about it but I don't think we ever got confirmation that both designs were related and it was just assumed so given the similar air frame choices.

siegecrossbow said:

Different in what way? In my opinion it is just a standard Soaring Dragon but since we don’t see its side profile that often, it may appear weird.

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From what I can see,

airframe 4’s actual wings has a lesser sweep angle, the tandem wings joins directly to the actual wings and rises up before sweeping back to join the fuselage at the back of the engine housing directly below the vertical stabiliser…

airframe 2’s actual wings however has a much larger sweep angle. At the joining point of the tandem wings to the actual wings, there seems to be a small pod like extension, the front of the pod joins to the actual wings and the tandem wings are joined at the back of this pod. The tandems has a lesser sweep angle compared to airframe 4 and is single straight piece rather than having a bend. The joining point of the tandem wings to the fuselage is in the middle of the air intake directly in front of the base of the vertical stabiliser.

How the difference affect performance, I have no idea, maybe someone with more expertise can explain… but it is definitely different.

Mt1701d said:

1, Divine Eagle, high altitude, long endurance, surveillance only… should be in service

2, WZ-7 Soar Dragon, high altitude, long endurance, surveillance only… in service

3, GL-11 sharp sword, stealth UCAV… in service

4, seems like a WZ-7 with different joined tandem wing design

5, WJ-700, UCAV… should be in testing

6, Cloud shadow / Wing Loong - 10, UCAV… should be in service

If anyone know more and I have been incorrect, please help add to / correct the info thanks!

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Here's is my take ...

Deino said:

Here's is my take ...

View attachment 76643

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I think number 5 is WJ-700 due to the gap between the front of the air intake and fuselage as well as the nose of the drone being almost in line with the leading edge of the wings… as seen here


I think number 6 is cloud shadow due the front of the air intake being joined directly to the fuselage, as well as the nose of the drone being visibly slightly higher than the leading edge of the wings… as seen here


So I don’t think they are different variant of the same drone but different drones entirely… at least if they variant of the same drone then number 6 is definitely the cloud shadow / Wing Loong 10

Deino said:

Here's is my take ...

View attachment 76643

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@huitong