Chinese UCAV Takes Maiden Flight

Photographs have appeared on Chinese military blogs purportedly showing the maiden flight of the Lijian (Sharp Sword) unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV). The photographs first appeared on Chinese language military websites: lt.cjdby.net and huanqiu.com on Nov. 21, supposedly the same day the flight occurred. According to lt.cjdby, the Lijian was designed by Shenyang Aircraft Design…

Task Force: Killer Drone

  If there’s one thing that Washington D.C. loves, it’s a good Task Force. To that end, the Stimson Center announced last week that former CENTCOM chief (Ret.) Gen. John Abizaid will head up a new Task Force looking at US drone policy. The 15-month study “will bring together legal, national security, political and military…

China’s Soar Dragon UAV Reappears

Like a ghost that appears and reappears in the fog, four new photographs of China’s Soar Dragon have materialized quite literally in the fog on an unidentified base in China. The photographs are appearing on various Chinese defense blogs and show remarkable new details of the high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). According to data collected…

VOA: Chinese Drone Technology Advancing Rapidly

Voice of America published an analysis with your very own Asia Bureau Chief and ex-CIA analyst Richard Bitzinger on Chinese unmanned aerial vehicles. Published by VOA’s William Gallo on December 19, 2012, “Analysts: Chinese Drone Technology Advancing Rapidly,” was not to everyone’s liking, including “Jimmy” who said: “As usual these so-called US and Western experts…

Zhuhai UAV Concepts Look Futuristic

During the AVIC Cup-International UAV Innovation Grand Prix ceremony at the Zhuhai Airshow in China on Nov. 14, a contest amongst industry professionals, a video was shown of the futuristic “Blue Shark” UCAV diving for an attack on Russia’s Kuznetsov aircraft carrier. Many of the contestant submissions were of near-space UCAVs and hovering ground-attack heavy…