Sunday, April 27, 2025

Drone Application of The Day: Drug plant busted

Here is a recent example of one of the countless applications for inexpensive drones:   Police in Xiangyang, Hubei, detected opium poppy cultivation using a drone.    Consequently, a farm received a 500 Yuan fine.

Locals in that area seem to have a long history of growing them at small scale, for cooking and seasoning (link). That's what they said.







Saturday, April 26, 2025

Kyrgyzstan WJ-100 UAV

The Third Research Institute of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (link)'s WJ-100 UAV is now known to have an export success, which is Kyrgyzstan

 





 



Thursday, April 24, 2025

Oh cute pandas

 





 

 

 http://eng.chinamil.com.cn/BILINGUAL/News_209203/16382435.html

BEIJING, April 23 -- This year's April 23rd marks the 76th founding anniversary of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). Starting from April 22, the PLAN held open ship day activities in more than 10 cities. More than 30 active Chinese naval ships were open to the public, reaching the highest number and widest variety in PLAN open ship day activities over the years.

北京4月23日电  4月23日是人民海军成立76周年纪念日。海军将于22日起,在沿海10多个城市港口同步举行舰艇开放活动,30多艘海军现役舰艇与公众见面。开放舰艇数量、型号均为历年来海军舰艇开放活动之最。

Those active main battle vessels, including the Type 075 amphibious assault ship, Type 071 amphibious transport dock, Type 052C/D guided-missile destroyer, and Types 054A and 056A guided-missile frigate, were open to the public. The open ship day activities were held in Qinhuangdao, Tianjin, Qingdao, Lianyungang, Taizhou, Shanghai, Ningbo, Zhoushan, Wenzhou, Ningde, Xiamen, Shantou, Guangzhou, Zhanjiang, Haikou, Sanya and other cities. Especially, the naval hospital ship Peace Ark docked at Tianjin City for the first time, while many other warships made their maiden visits to the respective provinces or cities they were named after.

期间,海军将开放075型两栖攻击舰、071型综合登陆舰,052C/D型导弹驱逐舰,054A型、056A型导弹护卫舰等多型现役主战舰艇,公众可登舰参观。开放地点包括秦皇岛、天津、青岛、连云港、泰州、上海、宁波、舟山、温州、宁德、厦门、汕头、广州、湛江、海口、三亚等城市。其中,“和平方舟”号医院船将首次靠泊天津,多艘战舰将首次靠泊命名省份或城市。

 








 






Wednesday, April 23, 2025

Non Headline News Of The Day: Chinese made CH-4 UAV down in Iraq

The Iraqi Air Force lost a Rainbow-4 or CH-4 UAV on the 22nd, The specific cause of the crash is unknown.   The two AR-1 air-to-surface missiles attached to the UAV are relatively intact

 




 https://www.flightglobal.com/civil-uavs/iraq-debuts-new-chinese-ch-4-uav/118492.article


Iraq debuts new Chinese CH-4 UAV

By Beth Stevenson13 October 2015


Iraq's defence ministry has released a video and pictures of its first China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) CH-4B “Rainbow” unmanned air vehicle taking off from Kut airbase.

Minister of Defence Khalid al-Obeidi observed the UAV take-off on 10 October on its first combat mission against Islamic State terrorists in the Anbar region of Iraq, the Iraqi Ministry of Defence says. The video confirms Baghdad’s purchase of the type, which had been the centre of speculation since images of it appeared online at the beginning of the year.

The army aviation division of the Iraqi forces has acquired the armed variant of the UAV – the CH-4B, while it also comes in a reconnaissance-only variant, the CH-4A.


As with many Chinese-made medium-altitude, long-endurance UAVs, the CH-4 resembles the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems family of Predator unmanned aircraft.
Advert

At Airshow China in Zhuhai in 2014, a company brochure said the CH-4 series is suitable for high-altitude missions over land and sea, and has a maximum take-off weight of 1,260kg (2,770lb) and payload capacity of 115kg. Endurance for the CH-4 series is claimed to be up to 30h.

In August this year, the new CH-5 variant of the Rainbow family of UAVs was unveiled by CASC, which resembles the CH-4A/B.

It reportedly has a wingspan of 20m (65.6ft) and can carry weapons, and is visually similar to the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper which has a similar wingspan.

Images of the CH-4 in the CASC brochures show that it is similar in appearance to the CH-5, but without the ventral fin.

Source: FlightGlobal.com/ 

Tuesday, April 22, 2025

Photo Of The Day: China Coast Guard is now amphibious?

 Like the PAP, it seems that the China Coast Guard is also getting (Type 067 III) landing craft into her fleet


 

Saturday, April 19, 2025

Video Of The Day: Peoeple's Armed Police is now amphibious?

In April 16th 2025, the People's Armed Police (PAP) commissioned a LCU (Type 067 III) into its fleet,  you can watch the entire video (here).  While the PAP is known to command small river crafts for security and law enforcement purposes, particularly in inland waters, this is the first time of it commanding an amphibious asset.

 

Here are some screen captures of the same video







Monday, April 21, 2025

Drone Warfare Of The Day: Frist fiber-optic drone testing by the PLA

 The following 2 CCTV captures of fiber-optic drones under eval by the 81st Group Army, Central Theater Command





Horrible China traffic

Don't you just hate it when you try to impress your girlfriend with a new Norinco Tracked Airborne IFV equipped with a new 30mm autocannon, only to be utterly stopped by the street track?

It seems that with more Y20 Transports entering service, the PLAAF appears increasingly confident in Ubering heaver airborne IFV then the older ZBD03




Bonus photos of HAHO / HALO





Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Photos of the day: Combined tactical battalion airborne assault against a fixed position in the Tibetan mountains

Again, this little drill is part of a greater PLA defense strategy against a foreign power's newly created mountain strike corps.  It took place on August 19th.   China has to react to a force of 80,000 troops stationing right across the boarder, trained and equipped to invade.








Tuesday, July 05, 2016

Rapid reinforcement to Tibet.

Tibet is one of China's largest regions but with only three line brigades protecting it (52nd, 53rd and 54th mountain Brigades), clearly it's ORBAT is not geared for large scale military operations, especially in defense against a foreign power's new mountain strike corps.   To beef up, the PLA high command is shifting its 15th airborne corp for rapid reinforcement from Wuhan in time of crisis, hopeful this will buy time until REGFORCE reinforcements arrive.


Just last week, they conducted a 5000 meter supply and a SpOps insertion drop







 Go Pro!  




Dual-use airports help PLA Air Force cope with emergencies
Source: China Military OnlineEditor: Zhang Tao
2016-07-01 16:550

BIJIE, July 1 (ChinaMil) -- A joint meeting on the development of military-civilian integration of dual-use airports of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force was held in Beijing on June 17. The meeting deliberated and passed the "Interim Provisions of Operation Security at Dual-use Airports of the PLA Air Force."

Following the win-win principles for both the military and civilian sides, the provisions aimed at regulating the operating security works at dual-use airports, including the coordination mechanism, joint management, joint support and maintenance. The release of such provisions means that the development of military-civilian integration on airport resources between the PLA Air Force and civil aviation has entered the implementation phase.

The pilot work of such development started at Lhasa Gonggar Airport and Wuxi Shuofang International Airport since April, 2015. Its main purpose was to establish a complementary management mechanism with smooth coordination and shared resources to gradually form a support capability that guarantees flight safety at peace times and meets combat needs at wartimes.
The pilot programs have made significant achievement after the exploration over the past one year. The two airports mentioned above are good examples of dual-use airports.

Lhasa Gonggar Airport is one of the world's highest dual-use airports. It provides important support for Tibet's economic development and national security in China’s Southwestern region.

On the one hand, as an important force in Tibet’s transportation, the airport has made great contributions to Tibet's economic construction. It has safely transported more than six million passengers in total since it was put into use. The cargo throughput also surpassed 140,000 tons.

On the other hand, the airport is an important channel to transport the PLA's new recruits and strategic materials to Tibet. The airport is also a major "airborne bridgehead" in Southwest China.

It has been found that the development of military-civilian integration of dual-use airports has very important practical significance and strategic benefits. First, the dual-use airports greatly save the cost of airport construction. Second, such airports bring great benefits to both the military and civilian sides.

For the PLA Air Force, dual-use airports can significantly improve the support capability of military airports. Such dual use can provide more footholds for the Air Force to deal with emergencies and future operations. For the civil aviation industry, the dual use can greatly lift its transportation capacity, expand the volume of passengers and cargo throughput, and alleviate current shortages in civil airports.

Practice has proved that the construction of dual-use airport is a win-win move. For this reason, construction for this purpose has extended to more airports in China. As of now, China has a total of 214 civil airports, one third of which are dual-use ones.



Sunday, May 22, 2016


Photos of the day: 15th Airborne's rapid deployment to Tibet.

Last week a mechanized regiment of 15th Airborne Corp, conducted a battalion size rapid deployment into the Tibetan Plateau.  Here are pictures from this "independent action" exercise.