SOURCE: INDIA TODAY
China’s People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) has made tremendous advances in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs). But all is not well as export versions of Chinese UAVs and UCAVs have the embarrassing habit of regularly falling out of the sky.
The technological advances increased and were visible after the Hainan incident of 2001 when a US Navy’s EP-3E ARIES-II signals intelligence aircraft was forced by a PLAAF J-8 aircraft to land on Hainan island’s Lingshui airport The aircraft was not handed over for a fortnight although the crew was returned to Washington DC. It was suspected that Chinese engineers learnt all the highly sensitive electronics by reverse engineering techniques at which they are very good.
The Chinese UAV technology further got a boost when the Iranian forces downed a highly secretive drone of USAF RQ-170 Sentinel flying over city of Kashmar trying to hit some nuclear installations. The electronics of this drone was believed to be sold to China by the Iranians.
China has been exporting the special version of CH-4B UCAV to many countries, including Pakistan Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Algeria.
CH-4 Details
China’s CH-4 is produced by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC). It is one of the Rainbow series of aircraft built by the state-owned corporation.
The UAV looks like one of the more familiar US drones — the MQ-9 Reaper. The main visual difference is the lower ventral fins of MQ-9 not seen on CH-4.
China has been selling different variants to different countries depending on their requirements and price they can afford. The variants are very difficult to make out despite the difference in wingspan from satellite images.
The UAV has a ceiling of 5,000m and an endurance of 14 to 30 hours, depending on payload carried. The satellite communication dome on top permits it to be controlled remotely. The range is 5,000km which reduces with increase in loads.
The UCAV with four hard posts can carry Lanjian-7 or Blue Arrow-7 laser guided bombs that can use GPS navigation for accurate kills.
Procurement by Algeria
Algeria had shown interest in purchasing the CH-4 when it was first displayed publicly at the Zhuhai airshow in November 2012.
The talks took place and trials began in Algeria in 2013 at Tamanrasset airbase in southern Algeria. There were talks on purchase of Guizhou Xianglong or Soar Dragon UAV with tandem wings, however, possibly due to financial constraints the deal did not work through.
Accidents in Algeria
China started testing of this UAV in 2013-end in Algeria. However, problems started dragging with the Chinese indicating corruption whereas the Algerians quoted control issues, especially during landing.
The first accident took place near Algeria’s Tindouf Airbase in 2013 during the testing period. The accident destroyed the UAV.
The second accident took place near the Ain Oussera Airbase on March 9, 2014. The same issue of losing control over the craft during landing below 200m was indicated as the cause of the accident.
Now, a third accident has been reported by the Algerian Air Force by Twitter handle @clashreport near Bir Rogaa airbase.
Real Cause
The real cause for all such accidents reported by many countries seems to be the dubious nature of the contracts and agreements that China has signed with them.
China signs agreements for a certain variant but delivers a lower version with many changes that the buyer has no choice but to accept since the requirements are urgent.
Like in case of Algeria, it was feeling pressured in 2012-14 due to the border situation worsening with Libya, Mali and Niger — all at the same time.
China is also known to avoid providing spare parts and after sales service. Instead, Chinese middlemen keep putting forth new options for better UAVs.
China’s exploiting of these African countries with huge resources but having strong ethnic and cultural difference is well known. Many times Chinese diplomats have been found providing arms and armaments to both rival parties and earning from both sides.
https://defencenewsofindia.com/china-exported-uav-ch4-to-the-world-but-its-drones-keep-falling-from-the-skies/
