Chinese UAV/UCAV development

That's interesting. When I saw that UAV in the hangar I thought it was this one.



Then I saw this Global Hawk type from models before. Not sure if this was ever posted in here before.

AssassinsMace said:

That's interesting. When I saw that UAV in the hangar I thought it was this one.

Then I saw this Global Hawk type from models before. Not sure if this was ever posted in here before.

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It is that one, the Sky Wing, there are two in the hangar plus the Soaring Dragon.

Are these still self-founded projects? Have the PLAAF shown any serious interest in the two of them?

hmmwv said:

It is that one, the Sky Wing, there are two in the hangar plus the Soaring Dragon.

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There are so many UAVs I can't keep track of the English and Chinese names.

no_name said:

Are these still self-founded projects? Have the PLAAF shown any serious interest in the two of them?

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Soaring Drago has PLAAF insignia painted so it's safe to say it's a military funded program, the Sky Wing probably is too considering it's now entered limited serial production. It'll be extremely interesting to see those UAVs being delivered, my guess is that PLAAF or CAC will send a K8 to follow it all the way to its base.

I wonder why PLA are going for two different models of HALE UAVs.

They have the BZK-005 for medium altitude, surveillance (it would be nice if they could hook it up with a few HJ-10s, I'm not sure why only Pterodactyl has been shown to be integrated with the weapons), but both xianglong and long haul eagle(?)/sky wing for HALE? I suppose xianglong is a bigger platform than long haul eagle, with the relevant higher capability in range/endurance/payload, and they may end up equipping different services as well.

But then there's the reaper+global hawk UAV we saw a few years ago as well, which also seems a little bit smaller than long haul eagle but is clearly meant to be a HALE uav.

So there's three different HALE UAV projects going on at the moment, all in slightly different weight classes. What's the deal.

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actually wait, in the background in the hangar, could that be the reaper/global hawk uav:



Instead of another long haul eagle? The radome/fuselage colour and angle blend seems identical to the reaper/global hawk uav prototype we saw a few years back (sky wing or whatever it is. All these uav names are tiring)

hmmwv said:

Soaring Drago has PLAAF insignia painted so it's safe to say it's a military funded program, the Sky Wing probably is too considering it's now entered limited serial production. It'll be extremely interesting to see those UAVs being delivered, my guess is that PLAAF or CAC will send a K8 to follow it all the way to its base.

Click to expand...

I guess Sky Wing is a little further along than Soaring Dragon, then? Will be interesting to see when and where these UAVs get delivered to and what their PLAAF designation will be.

they seriously need to change the engines on their UAVs. just changing the current projected wp13 engine on Soar dragon with ws13 should do wonders for its endurance. its slightly lighter engine, some 10mm wider and half a meter shorter. Should be doable IF such a development was taken under consideration during design. Then again, maybe the whole assumption about wp13 is bollocks, as the plane hasnt even flown yet, right?

Is there any niche for an osprey type UAV, and what role might it play?