Chinese UAV News & Discussions (Strictly)

[Deino]

Soar Dragon has been delivered to a new user.

Could be these ones? ... spotted as Lingshui/Hainan SSF.

 

[cirr]

 

[Deino]

Also at Lingshui?

 

[cirr]

Also atte Lingshui?

Nope。The Northern Theater Command Airforce.

 

[Deino]

Nope。The Northern Theater Command Airforce.

Any direct idea, where and what base?

 

[clarkgap]

Any direct idea, where and what base?

ShuangLiao airport of JiLin. Near North Korea - China border.

 

[Figaro]

ShuangLiao airport of JiLin. Near North Korea - China border.

Probably monitoring North Korean weapon tests?

 

[JSCh]

SF Express gets green light for drone package deliveries
Huang Shan China Plus Published: 2017-06-30 15:57:52

The major Chinese logistics company SF Express has been given the legal go-ahead for drone package deliveries, the first company to receive official permission for such a service, reports thepaper.cn.

An SF Express worker picks up a package delivered by a small drone. [Photo: guancha.cn]

The company can now deliver packages in its logistics demonstration area covering five villages and towns in Nankang District, Ganzhou City of Jiangxi Province.

After a package is loaded onto the drone, the route information is programmed in, and the UAV will make the delivery by itself.

SF Express teamed up with domestic drone maker Xaircraft in 2013 to test Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or UAVs.

It's reported that SF Express has developed a variety of drone models, for different business scenarios, which can carry loads of up to 5-25 kg, with a maximum range of 15-100 km.

SF Express carries out the first business operational flight of its drones in Ganzhou City of Jiangxi Province, on June 29, 2017. [Photo: 163.com]

Industry insiders say the Chinese logistics giant is planning to build an airport in Ezhou City in Hubei Province, to act as a domestic and international core hub, which can be connected with regional centers, to cover China's major economically developed areas.

Drones are expected to come into their own in remote areas where conventional means of delivery struggle.

"Drone delivery services can improve efficiency, as they won't be bothered by difficult terrain and traffic congestion. On the other hand, it shows a major technological breakthrough in energy-saving, by doing away with vehicle depreciation, road tolls and fuel costs," SF express investor and expert Zhao Xiaomin, told The Paper.

Zhao Xiaomin added that this service will lead to the upgrading of logistics automation, through the integration of the Internet of Things with the Internet.

China grants first operating license for pilot drone deliveries
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-27 22:31:26|Editor: yan


NANCHANG, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The first operating license to allow experimental drone deliveries in China has been granted to a courier, civil aviation authorities said Tuesday.

The East China Regional Administration of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) granted a subsidiary of China's leading courier SF Express the license in east China's Jiangxi Province. It allows the commercial operation of drone deliveries in a pilot zone in Nankang District in Jiangxi's Ganzhou City.

"The issue of the license means that drone transportation in China has entered a new stage," said Wang Zhiqing, deputy director of CAAC, adding that the technology was expected to benefit people in rural areas.

"SF Express will build a drone delivery network, expand delivery services in those remote areas of complex topography and improve its logistics efficiency," said Tian Min, a senior employee with SF Express.

Tian said the next step would be to expand the operation in the province and also the whole country.

Drone delivery tests have been carried out in Nankang District since June 2017.

Zhu Biying, living in Dagu Village in the pilot district, said he was confident in the drone delivery since none of the eggs were broken when transported by drones.

Previously, it was difficult to carry eggs or other farm products out of Zhu's mountainous hometown, which is around 10 kilometers away from the nearest township.

He said that the drone solved his problems, and some customers who ordered online could now receive his products even on the same day.

 

[JSCh]

Government support needed for carrier-based UAVs ‘to build powerful navy’
By Yang Sheng Source:Global Times Published: 2018/4/3 22:18:40

China's development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) has entered a new phase as the technology will allow synchronized operations between UAVs and military aircraft, and carrier-based UAVs are also being developed, Chinese experts said.

The joint operations of manned military aircraft, like fighter jets, and UAVs is the drone's future, Shi Wen, the chief engineer and designer of China's Caihong (CH), or Rainbow UAV series, told a press conference in Beijing on Monday.

"We are making efforts to promote artificial intelligence (AI) for UAVs to allow manned aircraft to co-pilot UAVs," Shi said.

Shi's team is under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC), and his team has developed a series of UAVs, including the CH-3, CH-4 and the advanced CH-5, which can now engage in surveillance and attack missions. The CH series of drones is popular among nations along the Belt and Road initiative, especially in some Middle East and African countries, which have a huge demand for weapons.

"On average, every CH-series drone has a flying time of more than 1,200 around the world every year, so we have a huge database to support AI technology research," Shi said.

China is focused on building a powerful navy, and its first domestically built aircraft carrier is preparing for its first sea trial, and the carrier-based UAV is also being developed, Li Jie, a Beijing-based naval expert, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

"Although the military has not released any information, research into carrier-based UAVs started long ago, and ship-based UAVs on destroyers and frigates have already been used in training," Li said.

Shi told the Global Times that "considerable resources are needed in carrier-based UAV research," so it would be risky to attempt without "government support."

While military applications remains the focus, Shi stressed the importance of the civilian uses of UAVs.

"Companies from China, the US and Europe are major competitors in the UAV market, and the civilian uses of UAVs are a larger share than military uses," he said.

The CH series UAVs can also be used for forest protection, exploration of underground resources, and for monitoring oceans, according to information released at the Monday press conference.

"A new generation CH series UAVs, the CH-X," which is the most advanced achievement in the series, "will be displayed at Airshow China 2018 in Zhuhai this year," Shi said at the press conference, without elaborating.

Airshow China is held in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong Province, every two years. This year, it will be held from November 6-11.

 

[JSCh]

PUBLIC RELEASE: 4-APR-2018
Newton funding to bolster China's long-term growth and global economy with agri-tech innovation
EARLHAM INSTITUTE

​

The National Food Production Centre for Smart Farming Services (Xinghua City, Jiangsu Province), based on Nanjing Agricultural University (NAU) and EI's Newton Agri-Tech project. Professor Tao Cheng's group at NETCIA (National Engineering and Technology Center for Information Agriculture, NAU) and the Zhou Group at the Earlham Institute were utilizing industry standard UAV to study wheat cultivation. CREDIT : EI

With the largest population in the world, China feeds nearly 1.4 billion people - covering 22% of the globe's inhabitants. In order to keep up with its intense food demand, China has cultivated vast areas of crops - accounting for 7% of the world's arable land.

A remarkable achievement but one that comes at a cost. Excessive use of fertilisers and chemical applications has resulted in a catalogue of environmental and agronomic issues such as soil compaction, acidification, pesticide residue toxicity, pest resistance, environmental pollution, and ecological imbalance. If not confronted promptly, China's agricultural sector and its environment are at imminent risk - damaging its long-term economic growth and potentially the global economy.

To address this monumental challenge, EI and NAU have partnered to improve agricultural practices by developing automated crop analysis based on large aerial images captured by UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) and fixed-wing light aircraft to identify key growth stages in wheat.

This aims to enable the Agri-Food sector to optimise the timing for fertiliser and chemical application in line with crop seasons based on agricultural aerial imagery data as well as ground-based remote sensors in the field - reducing costs and stabilising yields. The agri-solution will be built upon the existing analytic platform 'AirSurf' and expertise in machine-learning based image analysis, led by the Zhou Group at EI, together with key intellectual contributions from NAU.

EI project lead, Dr Ji Zhou, said: "Our innovative analytic technology will help resolve real-world problems in food security and precision agriculture; initially benefiting local agricultural authorities in the Jiangsu province through local agronomic demonstration centres and cultivation experts, and native farmers. Through the 'Field Day of Precision Crop Cultivation', we will demonstrate our research to agricultural practitioners (e.g. growers, farmers and breeders), who require advanced technologies to monitor crop fields and gain a better understanding of fertiliser and chemical applications.

"This project will also benefit and help modernise Agri-Crop and Agri-Tech sectors in both China and the UK. In particular, for Agri-Food Research & Development in China, our work can support the establishment of a smart, sustainable and adaptable agricultural system - empowering the country's productivity and sustainability in crop improvement and agricultural practices," said Dr Zhou.

Long-term, the project will apply AirSurf to industrial applications to further support the Agri-Food sector; sharing invaluable expertise, knowledge and software analytic platforms in key areas of crop research including phenotyping, breeding, cultivation, agricultural practices, and Agri-Tech innovation for bread wheat.

NAU project lead Prof Tao Cheng, added: "Through this Newton Network+ project in collaboration with Dr Zhou at the Earlham Institute, the two research groups will continuously develop our strengths in precision agriculture and information technologies. We aim to introduce the latest development in computing sciences to crop growth monitoring research, based on which we will create novel approaches to reliably measure key growth stages and predict yield production for wheat. Our ultimate target is to promote Agri-Tech innovations and modernise agriculture in both China and the UK".


Newton funding to bolster China's long-term growth and global economy with agri-tech innovation | EurekAlert! Science News

 

[cirr]

CH-1T
MTOW: 3 tons
Max. Payload: 1 ton
Endurance: 1.5 hrs
Ceiling: >3km
Cruising height: 1-6m
Mission: attacking large surface targets, long-distance high-speed torpedo attack, sea area blockade

 

[JSCh]

https://twitter.com/x/status/983494321017012225

 

[LKJ86]

2018.4.2

2018.4.3

 

[cirr]

China is building drone planes for its aircraft carriers

They're robotics wingmen for China's carrier pilots.

By Jeffrey Lin and P.W. Singer 9 hours ago

TYPE 003
This display at the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution (China's official military museum) in 2016 shows a nuclear-powered carrier with stealthy unmanned combat aerial vehicles.
Oedo Soldier

The Chinese military is bringing its drone and aircraft carrier programs together, pulling unmanned aerial systems onto carriers as robotic wingmen for pilots.

Shi Wen, the chief engineer of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC)'s attack drone family, told the Global Times that China is working on drones capable of flying from aircraft carriers. This program would be China's response to the U.S. Navy's UCLASS program, which proved drones' ability to take off and land from aircraft carriers, and the U.S. MQ-25 Stingray program, which will deploy refueling tanker drones to carriers in the coming years.

STEALTHY SWORD
The Lijian drone could be tweaked to better serve aircraft carriers.
Hongjian via China Defense Forum

While China's two aircraft carriers, the Liaoning and the nearly completed CV-17, have ski ramps that would likely limit them to vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) drones, the next Chinese carrier, CV-18, will likely have electromagnetic catapults. Those catapults would enable CV-18 and its nuclear-powered successors to launch heavier and faster drones propelled by turbofan engines.

It's likely the drones Shi mentions will be sophisticated, heavier versions of today's systems. The Lijian, for example, uses a flying wing body (just like the B-2 bomber and X-47B drone) and has two bomb bays that could accommodate 2 tons of artillery. A carrier variant would have reinforced landing gears and structures to handle the forces involved in catapult launch and assisted recovery. They may also have larger fuel tanks for extended range.

Shi also added that CASC's primary customer, the People's Liberation Army, was looking at using artificial intelligence to enable "wingmen" drones for manned aircraft.

AERIAL FIREPOWER FOR THE MASSES
For quick air strike abilities, missile-armed drone helicopters like this V750 and the Sky Saker 300 could be adapted for use on Chinese warships.
Weibo

These plans fit nicely within China's other military ambitions. The nation is already testing the first of VTOL unmanned aerial systems (UAS) on its warships. Those VTOL drones are likely unmanned helicopters, used for reconnaissance and possibly anti-submarine missions. Those drones will likely see service in the next few years, before being replaced by those with more sophisticated VTOL propulsion systems, such as tiltrotor engines (the engines tilt 90 degrees for level flight) or tail sitters (the entire aircraft tilts forward perpendicularly for level flight).

WINGMEN
The Cloud Shadow, a single-engined version of the Sky Wing UAV, has stealthy features like canted vertical stabilizers and serrated panel edges, though its lacks an internal weapons bay (for now). The CH-X drone, which will be displayed at Zhuhai 2018, will be a completely stealth unmanned combat aerial vehicle.
cqsims

Shi also mentioned that a new stealth drone, the Caihong X "CH-X," will be displayed at the 2018 Zhuhai Airshow in November. The CH-X will likely draw from the work done on the Lijian flying wing stealth drone. Like other members of the CH family displayed at the Zhuhai Airshows, the CH-X will likely be offered for export, possibly making it the world's first stealthy attack drone offered for export. And, as the CH-X is marketed for foreign buyers, it could also likely find domestic naval users as well.

https://www.popsci.com/china-drone-planes-aircraft-carrier#page-3

 

[Akasa]

China is building drone planes for its aircraft carriers

They're robotics wingmen for China's carrier pilots.

By Jeffrey Lin and P.W. Singer 9 hours ago

TYPE 003
This display at the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution (China's official military museum) in 2016 shows a nuclear-powered carrier with stealthy unmanned combat aerial vehicles.
Oedo Soldier

The Chinese military is bringing its drone and aircraft carrier programs together, pulling unmanned aerial systems onto carriers as robotic wingmen for pilots.

Shi Wen, the chief engineer of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC)'s attack drone family, told the Global Times that China is working on drones capable of flying from aircraft carriers. This program would be China's response to the U.S. Navy's UCLASS program, which proved drones' ability to take off and land from aircraft carriers, and the U.S. MQ-25 Stingray program, which will deploy refueling tanker drones to carriers in the coming years.

STEALTHY SWORD
The Lijian drone could be tweaked to better serve aircraft carriers.
Hongjian via China Defense Forum

While China's two aircraft carriers, the Liaoning and the nearly completed CV-17, have ski ramps that would likely limit them to vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) drones, the next Chinese carrier, CV-18, will likely have electromagnetic catapults. Those catapults would enable CV-18 and its nuclear-powered successors to launch heavier and faster drones propelled by turbofan engines.

It's likely the drones Shi mentions will be sophisticated, heavier versions of today's systems. The Lijian, for example, uses a flying wing body (just like the B-2 bomber and X-47B drone) and has two bomb bays that could accommodate 2 tons of artillery. A carrier variant would have reinforced landing gears and structures to handle the forces involved in catapult launch and assisted recovery. They may also have larger fuel tanks for extended range.

Shi also added that CASC's primary customer, the People's Liberation Army, was looking at using artificial intelligence to enable "wingmen" drones for manned aircraft.

AERIAL FIREPOWER FOR THE MASSES
For quick air strike abilities, missile-armed drone helicopters like this V750 and the Sky Saker 300 could be adapted for use on Chinese warships.
Weibo

These plans fit nicely within China's other military ambitions. The nation is already testing the first of VTOL unmanned aerial systems (UAS) on its warships. Those VTOL drones are likely unmanned helicopters, used for reconnaissance and possibly anti-submarine missions. Those drones will likely see service in the next few years, before being replaced by those with more sophisticated VTOL propulsion systems, such as tiltrotor engines (the engines tilt 90 degrees for level flight) or tail sitters (the entire aircraft tilts forward perpendicularly for level flight).

WINGMEN
The Cloud Shadow, a single-engined version of the Sky Wing UAV, has stealthy features like canted vertical stabilizers and serrated panel edges, though its lacks an internal weapons bay (for now). The CH-X drone, which will be displayed at Zhuhai 2018, will be a completely stealth unmanned combat aerial vehicle.
cqsims

Shi also mentioned that a new stealth drone, the Caihong X "CH-X," will be displayed at the 2018 Zhuhai Airshow in November. The CH-X will likely draw from the work done on the Lijian flying wing stealth drone. Like other members of the CH family displayed at the Zhuhai Airshows, the CH-X will likely be offered for export, possibly making it the world's first stealthy attack drone offered for export. And, as the CH-X is marketed for foreign buyers, it could also likely find domestic naval users as well.

https://www.popsci.com/china-drone-planes-aircraft-carrier#page-3

So, do we know if the CH-X is related to the carrier-based UAV or the Sharp Sword? Or if the Sharp Sword & carrier-based UAV are related at all?