Chapter 11 China’s Development of Unmanned Vehicles
2022.06.07
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Introduction
China has established the world’s largest UAV (a drone or remotely piloted aircraft [RPA]) industry with extensive exports to other countries for both military and non-military tasks. It has also become the world’s largest exporter of military UAVs, with its signature models, the Wing Loong and Rainbow Series UAV. Over 300 UAVs were exported to 15 countries in 2015-2020. Chinese UAVs are used by some countries in the Middle East and North Africa to assassinate rebel armies, guerrillas, and opponents and stabilize political power.[1] Although the precision and warfare performance of China-made UAVs are inferior to U.S.-made UAVs, they are cheap and popular with third-world customers. However, UAVs suffer a heavy toll as any ground troop can strike them down with certain anti-aircraft capabilities.[2]
[1]“China is the Largest Exporter of UAVs, Helping Totalitarian Nations to Suppress Democracy. Expert: Low- ering of Threshold for Wars,” Apple News, April 29, 2021, https://tw.appledaily.com/international/20210429/IO3UC2F7SZDUVKQUKE67YKP42U/.
[2]“ China is the Largest Exporter of UAVs, Helping Totalitarian Nations to Suppress Democracy. Expert: Lowering of Threshold for Wars,” same as the previous note.