New combat drone developed

A CH-9 combat drone attracts visitors at the ongoing 15th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition (Airshow China) in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, on Wednesday. (Photo by Chen Jimin/China News Service)

The China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics, one of the country's largest makers of military drones, has developed a new advanced unmanned combat plane — the CH-9.

According to the Beijing-based academy, a subsidiary of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the CH-9 is the new member of the CH — which stands for Caihong, or Rainbow — family, and features a large body, strong carrying capacity and long flight range.

Technical specifications published by the academy show that the drone is about 12 meters long, with a wingspan of nearly 25 meters.

Propelled by a turboprop engine, the plane has a maximum takeoff weight of 5 metric tons. It has eight external weapon pylons under its wings and is able to carry a total of 490 kilograms of ammunition, including air-to-air and anti-ship missiles, bombs, torpedoes, and loitering munitions.

When loaded with weapons, it is able to fly as far as 11,500 kilometers and remain in the air for up to 40 hours. It can also generate battlefield intelligence in real-time, autonomously identify targets, and adjust its flight route by itself.

These features enable the CH-9 to carry a large amount of munitions to patrol areas with potential targets, including submarines, according to the academy.

In addition to surveillance, reconnaissance, and attack, the aircraft is also capable of performing regional early-warning tasks, it noted.

Song Fangchao, an engineer in the CH-9 project, said on Wednesday that the new type is larger than its predecessors in the CH fleet, and that means it is able to carry out more kinds of missions.

"Globally, combat drones have begun to face new challenges, including the fact that many of their targets now have air-defense missiles," he explained.

"Therefore new models of combat drones will need larger bodies and mightier weapons so they can fire outside the hit range of an enemy's air-defense missiles."

The Beijing academy started researching and developing the CH drones in 1999 after its researchers realized that their expertise in aerodynamics and missile design could also be used on unmanned aircraft.

Since then, the research complex has established a large portfolio of military drones, ranging from small models for battlefield reconnaissance to a big stealth version capable of penetrating an enemy's air defense network.

It began to export combat drones to foreign militaries in 2003 and has since then sold them to more than 10 nations in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

Those planes have accumulated nearly 70,000 hours in combat actions and have fired more than 2,000 munitions, boasting a 98.2-percent successful hit rate.

"We have more types of military drones than any of our competitors in China," Song said.

"The CH-series planes have been called 'sharp weapons for counterterrorism operations' by our foreign clients."