In the biggest air show of Chinese Air Force, a high-altitude reconnaissance drone WZ-7 was unveiled and it is considered as a competitor of US Global Hawk. The air show is held every two years in the southern coastal city of Zhuhai but last year it was cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions.

The WZ-7 drone meets a similar role as of US Global hawk that is used to keep an eye on the Western Pacific, Taiwanese and Japanese naval assets, and at the Himalayan border with India.

WZ-7 has a long-endurance and has a single jet engine. It includes AI-enabled networking and sensor fusion, highly encrypted jamming resistant data links to share battlefield information with fighting forces and ISR links with Chinese satellites.

One of the primary roles of the WZ-7 would be to also share targeting data with and possibly undertake guidance of the DF-21D Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile (ASBM), giving Chinese military commanders immense flexibility in executing Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) operations, in the event of loss of its forward assets like ships and aircraft in combat.

The Beijing is pushing itself to meet a 2035 deadline to retool its military for modern warfare. At present, China still lags behind the United States in terms of tech and investment in its war machine, but according to the experts in defense field this gap is being narrowed by the Chinese Army at a consistent speed.

According to China Central Television, other than WZ-7, the PLA Air Force is displaying J-20 ‘Mighty Dragon’, Y-20 large transport/strategic airlift aircraft, KJ-500 early warning aircraft, the H-6K bombers, and J-16D electronic warfare aircraft ‘drone’.

Image Courtesy: Eurasian Times