Chinese UAV/UCAV development

Here are more:

The second of the new photos shows the entire nose is unpainted. A fire control radar? All four new pictures again show the leading edges remain untreated as well, meaning it is not an effect of light limited to the first photo posted by AssassinsMace. The vertical line at the juncture of the tail and the engine intake, running down to the base of the empenage, it suggests a single construction module enclosing the turbine.

ground mapping radar/navigation radar?

Ground mapping radar would be housed in the large canoe structure visible under the fuselage in picture two, probably X or L band based on the scientific research papers that Chinese scholars have been posting these past couple of years at earth observation conferences and suchlike. The 'canoe' appears to be akin to that carried by the IAI Heron TP, which houses a flat panel phased array SAR and various EO-IR sensors. That points to nav / air traffic integration as being the primary role of a nose radar if that is in fact what that forward radome houses.

Is there a second airframe in picture two, to the right? Rather odd looking shape with what appears to be a high mounted wing held up by several ground support struts and a bit of undercarriage?

"Advanced" UAV on display at the Aviation Expo/China 2011 FROM

Here's an interesting video on the "Soaring Dragon" UAV ...


(or: ) ... sadly not available in Germany because of some music-gema-problems

.... or here:




Deino

Here's some news report on the AVIC Cup. From CDF.

[video=youtube;If1qJd-9v5g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If1qJd-9v5g&NR=1[/video]

Mostly about US unmanned aerial systems but nonetheless not a bad article for anyone interested in this subject.I thought the following comment was interesting>

JerryoPt wrote: Oct 7th 2011 6:29 GMT The column came close to asking a very interesting question when mentioning a UAS pilot in Nevada going home for dinner with his family. If that 'pilot' is a legal combatant, even when off duty having dinner with his family in suburban Washington or Las Vegas with his family, is he still a legitimate 'target' and would his family be considered acceptable 'collateral damage'?

If the target were an AQ leader, off duty, having dinner with his family would his family be considered 'collateral damage'?

Click to expand...

Maybe a stupid question, but has the base of this BZK-005 UAV been confirmed and what unit within the PLAAF (or even PLA) flies them ??

Deino