Say Hello to China's Cloud Shadow UCAV

The Chinese are busy bees it seems and they are 'dressed' to impress at the Zhuhai airshow. They showed off the J-20. They are talking about the new, improved FC-31 prototype being built. They showed off their VTOL UAV. And now...

They are showing off their Cloud Shadow UCAV. This AVIC drone is export oriented and comes in two variants. The first is the recon version and has a 400 kg ISR payload. The other is a true UCAV but only has a payload of 500 kg. The recon version has a higher top speed (620 km/h) vs 550 km/s for the UCAV. Range is not mentioned in the article.

The aircraft is clearly similar to the General Atomics Avenger. However, in this case, I would say this more likely form is following function here rather than a knock-off: I will concede there might have been some inspiration, but not likely outright theft. YMMV on that assessment.

www.janes.com...

Why it look like bad ripoff of predator so much?

a reply to: BASSPLYR

It doesn't.

It looks a lot like an Avenger ripoff.

However, the Avenger is a pretty generic UCAV, really.

a reply to: anzha

you see every bodies designs in Chinese stuff. i even bet that their military equipment tears up just as much as there production stuff for civilian use. works for a little while then breaks and can't be repaired.

a reply to: anzha



Here is some highlights from the show, with the cloud shadow displayed at 2:25


I see the Chinese are very proud of this design as well. They plan on exporting a lot of these. This could end up being the go to air support craft for 21st century banana republic domestic operations.


This one has some footage of their operator at the computer at the end.

a reply to: anzha

Ohhhh man...does the word Copy Cat come to mind?

Fast forward to their flight simulation...1:13...looks like the joystick came of a Window xp pc...

originally posted by: hounddoghowlie
a reply to: anzha

you see every bodies designs in Chinese stuff. i even bet that their military equipment tears up just as much as there production stuff for civilian use. works for a little while then breaks and can't be repaired.

Good point . I had a rifle of Chinese manufacture that was terrible , and I can't imagine what it might be used for effectively .
Worse : the 1000 rd carton of ammo had an old - fashioned sardine twist - type opener mech . This failed and the can had to be opened with a knife . The knife , thankfully ... was an old American one .

originally posted by: anzha
The aircraft is clearly similar to the General Atomics Avenger. However, in this case, I would say this more likely form is following function here rather than a knock-off: I will concede there might have been some inspiration, but not likely outright theft.

Not to suggest a conspiracy ... or thousands of them , but - just maybe the Chinese mega - investments in international capitalist ' culture ' is pure brilliance .
There is no loyalty in these boardrooms , or any easy ways to impose oversight . Everything's for sale in their world .I believe they betray us constantly .
Why spend the R and D money if you too can own the results ( to some extent or other ) ?