China has success in Wing Loong series UCAV Exports

Commercial satellite imagery captured on 24 November 2017 shows that the Pakistani military may be operating the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) Wing Loong I strike-capable, medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).

The image shows what appears to be a single Wing Loong I in front of a hangar at the Pakistan Air Force’s (PAF’s) MM Alam airbase in Mianwali District – which is located in Pakistan’s Punjab Province – and confirms an online report published on 5 January by the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College in New York.

www.janes.com...

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) air force has almost certainly acquired the AVIC Wing Loong II medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Satellite imagery shows three UAVs matching the Wing Loong II’s dimensions at the UAE’s remote Qusahwirah Air Base near the border with Oman and Saudi Arabia on 22 October 2017.

www.janes.com...

The UAE already had the Model I Wing Loong, but is the launch customer for the Wing Loong II.

The Saudis, Khazaks, UAE and Pakistan are now confirmed customers. Nigeria (very strongly suspected), Egypt and Uzbekistan are also thought to be customers as well. I'd expect others, like some of the more Sino friendly South Asia and other African nations to pick up the birds as well.

War when predator and Reaper esque UCAVs are everywhere is gonna be interesting. This had been a First World advantage. No more.

a reply to: anzha

The problem with all of these designs, the Reaper included (since the Predator is being phased out), is that they're only really useful in a permissive environment. Throw some serious air defenses in, and they're going to be knocked out of the skies.

a reply to: Zaphod58

A specops raid might be a little more exciting though. The stuff when you want to go in sneaky like.

The main thing about something like a Reaper in a larger conflict, particularly if things are hot on the ground, you can't ignore it. And to get rid of it, you're going to need to radiate which makes you a tempting target for other aircraft in the area. And in the beginning of a high-intensity conflict, I like the odds of having a dedicated SEAD effort underway across and beyond the FEBA (or whatever we're calling it these days).

Beyond that, down at Yuma someone has been doing some interesting things integrating Pandora (and trials with MALD), making a Reaper part of an aggressive approach to SEAD/DEAD involving multiple platforms. I know the Pandora effort is very healthy right now, and we sort of obliquely touched on another thread about how having multiple platforms networked and emitting from multiple aspects might be beneficial to the EW mission. So if, hypothetically, a Growler or Prowler could coordinate/integrate/emit from multiple different aircraft, wouldn't that just be fine...

This will make India more nervous of flights near the border..

warisboring.com...

a reply to: anzha

Indonesia bought 4.

www.janes.com...

a reply to: Zaphod58

Somebody needs to make a late 80s-style top-scrolling shooter where you can choose between the F-35 and the F-22 and the baseline spam enemies are Chinese turboprop MALE UCAVs, as I'd imagine that such an experience isn't that far off from what deploying them in an actual contested airspace environment would be like, for the fighter pilots.

At least, until you got to the flying hoverjet-powered Mecha-Liaoning level boss that spits out J-20s every 5 seconds while spamming lasers and Dongfeng 21s at you in between cooling off while exposing its reactor for your power-up attack every 20 seconds.

www.eastpendulum.com...

You will need to run that through Google Translate.

However, the Wing Loong program has successfully exported at least 100 UCAVs.

a reply to: anzha
As long as they keep them local and not fly them south east...

www.militarytimes.com... rones/

TLDR: The Middle East likes the Chinese UCAVs because they come without restrictions like the American ones.

a reply to: Blackfinger
Mehh, Jindalee would spot them just after takeoff anyway. They have enough internal problems to target with them and keep them occupied as it is.

a reply to: thebozeian

Pakistan and China will jointly produce Wing Loongs.

Expect UCAVs to proliferate big time if true.

www.janes.com...

This might be a CH-5, rather than a Wing Loong:

Let's play: what do you see, folks?

a reply to: anzha



Not a Wing Loong, but not sure we have a chinese UAV thread.

a reply to: anzha

Egypt is buying a second set of Wing Loong IIs:

www.defenseworld.net...

Good looking machine.

A Chinese made Wing Loong UCAV was shot down in Yemen.

OTOH, the Wing Loong has been getting far more accurate, even with moving targets:

www.ecns.cn...

a reply to: anzha

A Wing Loong killed a T-72 in Yemen. I have some animated gifs, but, unfortunately, they are too big to upload.