Saturday, June 6, 2015

China Unveils New Divine Eagle UAV with A2/AD Capability

The Divine Eagle reportedly flew in February,
but this is the first time images of the drone have emerged online
PopSci notes that the images follows the release of the first Chinese defence White Paper which calls for improved expeditionary capabilities for the military. The Divine Eagle is a high-altitude UAV designed to detect stealth aircraft at long ranges, using special purpose radars. It has seven radars which include a X/UHF AMTI Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar on the front and two X/UHF AMTI/SAR/GMTI AESA radars on the twin booms. There are another two X/UHF AMTI AESA radars on either side of the engine nozzles, and two more radars on the end of the booms
China Unveils New Long-Range Drone | Washington Free Beacon
The Shen Diao, or Divine Eagle, remotely piloted aircraft is being developed by China’s Shenyang Aircraft Corporation and appears from Chinese Internet photos made public recently to be larger than the U.S Air Force’s Global Hawk long-range surveillance drone.

Rep. J. Randy Forbes, (R., Va.) a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said Chinese support for systems such as the Shen Diao drone is part of a long-range, well-funded military buildup.

“This particular UAV appears to advance targeting capabilities that China would use in an anti-access, area denial campaign,” Forbes said, using the term for unmanned aerial vehicle.

Meet the PLA’s Deadly New ‘Carrier Killer’ Drone | The Diplomat
Developed by China’s Shenyang Aircraft Corporation and influenced by the Russian Sukhoi S-62 twin-fuselage high-altitude, long-endurance UAV (some media reports indicate that China stole key design features from Russia), the Divine Eagle is Beijing’s latest addition to its burgeoning anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) capabilities.
The UAV prototype is a high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) multi-mission platform with both long-range surveillance as well as strike capabilities and “has been the subject of speculative conceptual drawings since 2012,” according to IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly.  It boasts anti-stealth capabilities, a special purpose radar and reportedly first flew in February 2015.
According to Popular Science magazine, the Divine Eagle is designed to carry multiple Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radars, of the AMTI, SAR and GMTI varieties as well as Airborne Moving Target Indicators (AMTI) that are used to track airborne targets, like enemy fighters and cruise missiles.
Ground Moving Target Indicator (GMTI) radars could be used for identifying and tracking large groups of vessels such as an aircraft carrier strike force. Other radars like the “F-22 killer” JY-26 “have raised concerns in the American military that they could track stealth aircraft like the F-35 fighter and B-2 bomber at long ranges,” Popular Science magazine reports.

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