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First Test Flight For China’s Stealth UAV

Nov 24, 2013

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Chinese state media is reporting that the Chinese military has completed its first test flight of their stealth drone that looks a lot like the U.S. Navy’s X-47B.

The new Chinese stealth UAV is suspiciously similar to the X-47B UAV shown here. Photo: U.S. Air Force (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Named the “Sharp Sword,” the drone flew for 20 minutes and successfully completed the test over Chengdu. This comes according to DefenseTech. “The successful flight shows the nation has again narrowed the air-power disparity between itself and Western nations,” state-run newspaper China Daily said in a statement on Friday.

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

Defense analysts have speculated that the drone is a reverse-engineered copy of Russia’s Mikoyan Skat unmanned aerial vehicle. Not much else is known about the capabilities of the jet-powered drone. The Chinese also continue to test their two manned stealth fighters the J-20 and J-31. Few details are known about these stealth fighters.

In May, a video of the “Sharp Sword” taxiing down the runway spread across the internet. Chinese officials said then that they were close to being ready to execute the drones’ first test flight.