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| Wing Loong UCAV (Click to Enlarge) |
By WENDELL MINNICK
ZHUHAI, China — China’s UAVs have grown more teeth, according to the evidence on hand at this year’s Zhuhai airshow, an event that has expanded exponentially since its debut in 1996.
When UAVs began popping up at the biennial aviation exhibition, they were mere models, figments of an engineer’s ambition and imagination. One of the first to appear in model form, in 2006, was Shenyang’s Dark Sword (Anjian) unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV). The Anjian caused wild speculation among aviation analysts and journalists. The stealthy strike UCAV with forward-swept wings looked menacing but has not been seen since at Zhuhai.
At the 2010 airshow, numerous videos, murals and other artistic representations portrayed “heroic” Chinese UCAVs attacking U.S. aircraft carriers. Some of these bizarre renderings showed UCAVs swarming over aircraft carrier battle groups like angry bees.
This year, the one hint that UAVs might be used against aircraft carriers was an imaginative entry in a competition on future UAV designs sponsored by Aviation Industry Corp. of China (AVIC). In this case, a stealthy Blue Shark UCAV was shown attacking Russia’s Kuznetsov aircraft carrier.
Two UCAVs stood out this year at Zhuhai, and both appeared to be influenced by the U.S.-built MQ-9 Reaper. The first was the Wing Loong, built by Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute, and the second was the CH-4, built by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp.
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