First clear photo of China's Lijian drone appears on internet
Staff Reporter 2013-05-15 16:03
The Lijian stealth drone is larger Dassault's nEUROn but larger than Northrop Grumman's X-47B. (Photo courtesy of the Global Times)
A first clear photo of China's first stealth combat drone, the Lijian ("sharp sword") designed by Hongdu Aviation Industry Group based in Nanchang, Jiangxi province, appeared on the internet on May. 14, according to the country's state newswire Xinhua.
From the photo, a military analyst in China said the drone's engine is apparently the RD-93 imported from Russia. This is the same engine used by JF-17 Xiaolong or Thunder multi-role fighter developed by China in partnership with Pakistan. The drone is larger than the French nEUROn, but smaller than the X-47B developed by the US.
Peng Tinghua, a Chinese military analyst, said on his blog that the Lijian shares very similar specs to the X-47B, designed by Northrop Grumman. With a combat radius of 4,000km, according to the China Aviation News, the Lijian would be able to strike any target in the Western Pacific region, meaning it could be deployed in operations in the Taiwan Strait and the South and East China seas in a campaign against the United States, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam or the Philippines, Peng said.
The state-run Global Times said that the drone, guided by China's Beidou Navigation System, will be capable of precision attacks on targets behind enemy lines and could furthermore be operated from the flight deck of an aircraft carrier.
Several smaller precision attack munitions were demonstrated at the Zhuhai Air Show in southern China last year. Most of them, including the CM-506 glider bomb, could be carried by the Lijian drone.
