Encouraged by the success of American RQ-1B Predator UCAV deployed in Afghanistan, Chinese have accelerated their own UCAV program.

Shown here is the prototype a Chinese UCAV modified from a retired J-5/Mig-17 fighter. However it is still unclear at this stage whether it will be used as a rudimentary cruise missile or a reuseable UCAV capable of dropping bombs and launching rockets against ground targets. The patch on its vertical tail suggests it is the work of PLAAF UAV Research & Test Base whose products include a supersonic drone modified from a retired J-7A/Mig-21F.

[jw] : In my opinion, the strategic and tactical values of a UCAV are not really met by this system:

• China does not (yet) suffer from the high political costs of losing a soldier's life. (In more harsh words, life is cheap for China; soldiers are expendable even in mass human wave attacks if called for.) Furthermore, China doesn't engage in the global interventions the U.S. participates in, so they have less worry about risking a pilot's life in some questionable overseas adventure anyway. Given the complexity of controlling a UCAV (justified mostly for the U.S. by the political value???), it just doesn't seem economical for China to replace a human pilot.
• UCAVs should be small, stealthy and more maneuverable than piloted aircraft (not having to carry all the support for a human pilot, and not constrained by the G-force endurance limits of the human body.) This design doesn't seem to come close to satisfying those goals.

On the other hand, this design does have a few other appealing factors of UCAVs:

• Cheaper than Piloted aircraft. (Can't get much cheaper than recycling 50's era Jet aircraft!)
• Expendable (while I don't think the Leaders of China have to worry as much about expending a pilot's life as the U.S. leaders do, this system is so cheap it could be thrown away in a conflict.)
• Force multiplier. Multiple UCAVs can be controlled from a singler larger mothership, serving as extended eyes and ears, and weapons platforms. The U.S. has apparently used Predator UCAVs working in consort with AC-130 gunships in this manner. (Still, it would seem more practical for China to assign piloted aircarft to this task.)
• Deniability. U.S. UCAVs are so high tech there would probably be few doubts where one came from if the wreckage fell in a politically sensitive area. A UCAV based on an old Soviet fighter could plausibly come from many third world countries.

This vehicle may just be a test bed to work on the technology, to be deployed on a better platform as China's aerospace technology improves. It may also just be a big cruise missile, as the text above suggests. Iraq had converted trainer aircraft to be pilotless cruise missiles, as far back as the first Gulf War.

11:34:56 PM    comment