The Aerospace CH UAV Co Ltd CH-7, which was first displayed at Zhuhai in 2018, is an intriguing aircraft since the latest version can be used for “different types of maritime missions”, the Global Times said in a separate article.
The intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) information a stealthy drone can provide is seen as crucial to modern warfare, particularly to direct the cruise and ballistic missiles that form a large chunk of China’s arsenal.
“Theoretically such a platform could undertake maritime surveillance of US Navy activities, including tracking their aircraft carriers, and potentially targeting them with indirect fires from IRBMs such as the DF-26,” said Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
The aircraft also has implications for Taiwan, which China claims as its own, despite the strong objections of the government in Taipei.
“On the radar it will look like a very small dot,” said Shu Hsiao-Huang, a research fellow at Taiwanese defence thinktank INDSR. “It is set to pose a very big challenge to Taiwan’s air defence surveillance capacity.”
