First Chinese stealth drone 'ready' for test flight

[AVERAGE INDIAN]

The Chinese military is making preparations for the inaugural flight test of its newly designed unmanned combat vehicle, bringing the Asian powerhouse into the stealth technology race, Chinese media report.

China's first unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), known as the Lijian ('sharp sword'), is designed jointly by theHongdu Aviation Industry Group and Shenyang Aviation Corporation. The project was launched in 2009 and the drone's first ground test was conducted on December 13 last year.

The Lijian, which makes China the third country to have stealth drone capabilities, is now ready for flight testing, China Aviation News reported.

The Chinese UAV is designed for use by the PLA Air Force and Navy Air Force for combat missions, China Aviation News reported. It may also be used for tracking and reconnaissance along China's lengthy and occasionally contentious border.

Beijing's ambitious efforts at developing its drone capabilities have not escaped the attention of Taiwan, which has quarreled with Beijing in the past over questions of sovereignty and national identity.

"Taiwan should be concerned about China's development of large numbers of advanced military UAVs," Ian Easton, a research fellow at theProject 2049 Institute, told the Taipei Times.

China's stealth drone is third such unmanned combat vehicle in existence, after the X-47 designed by the United States, and the nEUROn, a collaborative effort of various EU companies.

The nEUROn was launched in 2005 following an order by the French Defense Procurement Agency. The program is a collaborative effort between French, Italian, Swedish, Spanish, Greek and Swiss defense companies.

The US Pentagon's X-47 stealth drone, designed by Northrop Grumman, began as part of DARPA's J-UCAS program, and is now part of the US Navy's UCAS-D (Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration) program. The X-47 is still undergoing flight testing.

The unveiling of the prototype places the People's Republic of China ahead of several nations in the development of stealth drone technology.

India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Sweden and Russia also have their own stealth UAV programs.

First Chinese stealth drone ‘ready’ for test flight | China Daily Mail

 

[shiphone]

High speed texi....source: CD forum

 

[J20!]

Another shot:

 

[sayareakd]

how do they keep track of it ? beyond visual

 

[Abhijeet Dey]

Pakistan will eventually buy this chinese drone to spy on India. It may also fall into the hands of Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad.

 

[shiphone]

I'm afraid it's an UCAV porject...similar size to French 'NEURON' and Russian ,UK projects...but much smaller than the USA X-47B

from left to right...French ,China, X47B, UK

------------------------
scale down model of this project publiced in 2011...

-----------------
an old project developped in early 2000s (BZK007) already had

A SATCOM antenna inside a large dorsal bulge.provides real-time transmission of data and commands between the UAV and the ground control station....

obviously this UCAV use the same way...we have seen the Grey color dorsal bulge

 

[drkrn]

this plane can seriously kick some butts

 

[Impluseblade]

Beijing's ambitious efforts at developing its drone capabilities have not escaped the attention of Taiwan, which has quarreled with Beijing in the past over questions of sovereignty and national identity.

"Taiwan should be concerned about China's development of large numbers of advanced military UAVs," Ian Easton, a research fellow at theProject 2049 Institute, told the Taipei Times.
First Chinese stealth drone 'ready' for test flight | China Daily Mail

well, another piece of crap.

http://www.project2049.net/about_us.html:

The Project 2049 Institute | 2300 Clarendon Blvd | Suite 250 | Arlington, VA 22201

Someone in US told Taiwan media "Taiwan should be concerned about China's development of large numbers of advanced military UAVs" is equal to "Beijing's ambitious efforts at developing its drone capabilities have not escaped the attention of Taiwan."

 

[p2prada]

how do they keep track of it ? beyond visual

Transponders and RCS enhancers.

 

[p2prada]

High speed texi....source: CD forum

Is that a RD-93 or a WS-13?

 

[asianobserve]

Is that a supersonic UCAV? That engine is enormous and obviously without thermal masking... It negates the whole purpose of the shaping (and maybe coating) efforts.

 

[shiphone]

so far we thought it was the full version of RD93, it's said that the planned object is some varient of WS13 without afterburner.it seems the R&D work of this varient is behind the schedule again .

it's a sub sonic UCAV, the unwanted and unnecessary afterburner makes the nozzle protrusive which affect the stealthy. the planned engine would be shorter with some new nozzle.by then we may see it would look more alike the scale down model in my earlier post

 

[nimo_cn]

It certainly does not look as futuristic as the model, more efforts are needed in the coming years.

Sent from my HUAWEI T8951 using Tapatalk 2

 

[J20!]

This UCAV is probably at the same stage as NEURON or X-47A, that is, a technology demonstrator meant to develop key technologies required in a production variant.

The engine being case and point. It looks to be using the same RD93 as an Shengyang Institute's other high profile carrier borne combat aircraft prototype, the J31, suggesting that these are initial prototypes that wont see production versions till the end of the decade, since AVIC's display of the UCAV's production model didn't feature a round nozzle:

In conclusion, I'd say this is a tech demonstrator that will need about another decade (as will Neuron and BAE's equivalent) to achieve the milestones being reached by the USN X47B program:

 

[shiphone]

three possiable engines.

1.RD93 with afterburner
2,RD93 without Afterburner
3.WP-7

----------------------
x-post

the model of UCAV(Sharp Sword ) in the Exhibition Hall of some R&D unit. along with some Medium Range Bomber concept

 

[shiphone]

a video of Sharpsword's Low Speed taxi before the maiden flight.

[video=youtube_share;VPZ7sqH2_Ko]http://youtu.be/VPZ7sqH2_Ko[/video]

 

[Broccoli]

And here we go...

 

[Blackwater]

Pakistan will eventually buy this chinese drone to spy on India. It may also fall into the hands of Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad.

Don't insult the word BUY

 

[sayareakd]

Good work by China......................

 

[J20!]

Pics of the Lijian prototype's first flight: