Air Show China | Unmanned Surprises

Prasun K. Sengupta

The Airshow China 2021 exhibition, held at Zhuhai in southern China’s Guangdong province from September 28 to October 3, saw prominence being accorded to several new-generation unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV)—both armed and unarmed—that are expected to be exported worldwide in large numbers.

Since the beginning of the previous decade, China has emerged as the principal supplier of such UAVs to almost all of the world’s trouble-spots, especially in the Middle East and North Africa. In Asia, such platforms have been exported in large numbers to Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, the United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan.

At the expo, state-owned China Aerospace Science & Technology Corporation (CASC) exhibited its latest medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) armed UAV, the CH-6 (Cai Hong 6, or Rainbow-6), which was developed by the CASC-owned China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics—also known as the 11th Academy. The CH-6 has a maximum take-off weight of 7.8 tonnes, can host a 300kg reconnaissance sensor payload and 2,000kg weapons payload, has an overall width of 20.5 metres, length of 15 metres, height of 5 metres, maximum cruising speed of 800kph, service ceiling of 12km, cruising range of 12,000km, and maximum cruising time of 20 hours.

China’s Sichuan Tengden Technology Company (Tengden) unveiled its three-engined variant of the TW-328/TB-001 armed MALE-UAV, whose maiden flight from the Zigong Fengming General Airport i