Weapons

China's High-Speed Drone Is Rocket-Powered And All About Doing What Satellites Can't

China's big 70th-anniversary parade marking the founding of the PRC has come and gone. There were a number of revelations, some of which we are still analyzing, but the biggest ones were in the unmanned space. In the days leading up to the parade, we had covered both of the most impressive unmanned vehicles that were to be displayed. It's time to follow up with our analysis now that we have seen them in far greater detail. We posted our analysis on the GJ-11 Sharp Sword UCAV earlier today, now here are my takeaways from the official unveiling of the WZ-8—also referred to as the DR-8—high-speed reconnaissance drone.

Before we get started, it's important to note that the two WZ-8s put on display for the parade appear to be real aircraft, not mockups. It is unclear how representative they are of the current maturity of the program, but they are indeed real aircraft. Considering that the WZ-8 has been around for some time, these could be early demonstrators or an early production configuration, we just don't know.