China Stealth Drone Completes Test Flights, Aviation Experts Still Skeptical
China State media revealed that its country's military was able to successfully test a stealth drone.
"The successful flight shows the nation has again narrowed the air-power disparity between itself and Western nations," local publication, China Daily, wrote. The news is not free from skeptics, who cite that the newspaper attributed the news to photographs.
Military experts admit that should the test be genuine it would be a huge accomplishment for the Chinese military.
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The drone was reportedly produced by the Aviation Industry Corporation of China, but the company has yet to officially announce if the test was successful.
Wang Ya'nan, the deputy editor in chief at Aerospace Knowledge Magazine, told China Daily that the drone could be equipped with the RD-93, a Russian turbofan engine originally designed for a manned military fighter jet.
China is the newest country to enter the field of military stealth vehicles and news of this test comes just months after Iran claimed to have built a manned stealth fighter jet.
Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad took pictures earlier this year alongside the country's new stealth fighter, Qaher F313 aircraft in a sparsely decorated bunker as he met with military officials and a pilot to admire the new aircraft in what he described as "among the most advanced fighter jets in the world."
Reports added that some the features included in the jet fighter is the capability of attacking both air and ground targets as well as remaining undetected from enemy radar.
However, aviation experts came to the conclusion that the jet fighter is indeed a fake due to various shortcomings found in the published photograph.
Experts have stated that the dimensions of the aircraft look to small and would not be able to accommodate a pilot in flight. They have also been wary of the instrument panel and actual cockpit, which look to have been fitted outside of the fuselage.
"It looks like the Iranians dumped some rudimentary flight controls and an ejection seat into a shell molded in what they thought were stealthy angles," Andrew Davies, senior defense analyst and director of research at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told Fairfax Media.
