Chinese UAV/UCAV development

balance said:

The fact that US develops X-47B seems to suggest that DF-21D is a credible threat to them. If DF-21D is not a real threat, why station your carrier 3000 miles away, and dvelop carrier-borne stealth UCAV?
I think this is an indirect confirmation that they know better how effective DF-21D is.

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Well I would actually question that, because the only report of DF-21D is coming from US, China have not even confirm the existence of such missile, so we have no confirmation of any performance of this missile, and if US thinks it is a threat they do what they do, but it does not mean anything officially because we don't know anything. But to me it seems so far DF-21D is already making it is impact psychological rather than on the battlefield, and let's hope it stays that way.

Secondly, UCAV is the next evolution of toys being used on the battlefield, with or without China US is going to develop it anyway. Simply because drones offers so many potential advantages over manned platforms. So you cannot say X-47B's sole existence is China.

jackliu said:

Serbia and Hezbollah is NOT China, those nations can't even defend their own airspace, NATO and Israel was bombing them more like a target practice than anything that resemble a real warfare.

China can defend it is airspace and produce hardware just as advanced as US and NATO in the next 20-30 years when X-47B is expected to go into wide deployment.

Fact it, there is no wonder weapon anymore that US and NATO can use against China anymore. War between US and China will only end in disaster and set human race back for 100 years or more. The only option is peaceful co-existence between those two nations and work together.

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True, UAV is only good when you control the air space otherwise its a waste of time and a waste of resources

balance said:

The fact that US develops X-47B seems to suggest that DF-21D is a credible threat to them. If DF-21D is not a real threat, why station your carrier 3000 miles away, and dvelop carrier-borne stealth UCAV?
I think this is an indirect confirmation that they know better how effective DF-21D is.

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X-47B has nothing to do with DF-21D. One of USN answers to DF-21D is those SSN/SSGN with hundreds of tomahawk nearby chinese waters.

jackliu said:

Well I would actually question that, because the only report of DF-21D is coming from US, China have not even confirm the existence of such missile...

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Actually, On 11 July 2011 PLA Chief of General Staff General Chen Bingde confirmed publicly that China is developing the DF-21D:

In 2011 September, AVIC held an internal competition of UAV. SAC disclosed a flying wing model of new UCAV. Richard Fisher said it looks like in the same kind of Northrop Grumman X-47B and Boeing Phantom Ray. An article is published in 2011 June, Journal of Naval Aviation Engineering Institute. One of the authors is an UAV expert of SAC. The article claimed that SAC was designing an UCAV with 15m wingspan and 11m fuselage length. Its flying wing configuration is similar to Phantom Ray. The core test item of the mentioned internal competition is to land the UAV on a simulated carrier deck. And the SAC UAV passed this test very well. It means that full-sized SAC UAV may be launched from carrier after J-31.

GAIC Harrier III

Love the UAV... Hate the name. Great to see some different designs.

CH-4 in AW&ST mag

This would be cool to see.

AssassinsMace said:

This would be cool to see.

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And expensive to build, and totally worthless unless the PLAAF invests more in AWACS.