China to Open a Drone Factory in Saudi Arabia

2017-04-03

China will construct a new facility to produce unmanned aerial vehicles in Saudi Arabia, following a recent visit from Saudi King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud Salman.

The King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia’s national center for all things science and tech, signed a partnership with China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. on March 16th. The new facility is part of a $65 billion deal signed between the Saudi monarch and Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting in Beijing to promote stronger ties between the two nations.

CASC produces China’s CH-4 UAV, a drone similar to the U.S. Air Force’s General Atomics MQ-1 Predator. Saudi Arabia, which already operates CH-4 drones, has expressed a desire to grow its fleet. In addition to expanding the Saudi fleet, the new facility can operate as a hub for manufacturing and servicing for other CH-4 operators in the Middle East, including Egypt, Iraq and Jordan.

The CH-4 can carry AR-1 missiles, capable of hitting soldiers, tanks and small boats within 1.5 meters of the target. The Saudi facility will be CASC’s third CH-4 factory outside of China, with facilities in Pakistan and Myanmar.

In 2014, a deal fell through between the two nations when the kingdom sought China’s DF-21D “carrier killer” ballistic missile.

“The DF-21 deal was turned down as a result of strong opposition in the international community amid the Iran nuclear crisis in the region,” Macau-based military observer Antony Wong Dong told the South China Morning Post. “Beijing may want to use the CH-4 drone as a substitute project in a bid to please an old friend.”

A report published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in February said Iraq had imported 56 per cent of its arms from the United States over the past five years. However, Iraq’s defence ministry said in a report it had opted for the CH-4 over the US Predator because it was cheaper. A CH-4 drone costs US$4 million, while the US Air Force website says a package including four MQ-1 Predators and a ground control station costs US$20 million.

Zhou Chenming, who previously worked for CASC’s drone-development subsidiary, said the CH-4 factory in Saudi Arabia, only the third in the world outside China, following ones in Pakistan and Myanmar, would also assemble associated equipment, which would improve after-sales services for clients in the Middle East.

Zhou said China had exported the Wing Long, a medium-altitude, long-endurance UAV, to Saudi Arabia in 2014, but that drone had not performed well in the Arabian desert.

“The CH-4 has recorded outstanding performance in anti-terrorist attacks in Iraq, Yemen, as well as in Africa’s Sudan, Ethiopia and China’s neighbouring Pakistan,” he said. “That’s why our Saudi friends are so interested in the drone cooperation project.”

Zhou said the drone factory deal was just “small business” in the US$65 billion of deals signed during the king’s visit.

”The real aims behind the deals are an oil-hungry China being able to get more oil from the kingdom to sustain its domestic economic development, and Saudi Arabia improving its infrastructure with China’s technological aid.”

Source: uasvision.com

Region: Asia-Pacific
Contry: China
Category: UAV

2020-03-12

Behind the scenes of a Chinese drone maker operation during COVID-19

As the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) slows in China, the country has seen an orderly resumption of work to reboot its economy. The Chinese agriculture technology company XAG is one of the first companies obtaining work resumption approval from government. It has restarted business in its Guangzhou headquarters early on February 10, with an overall 90% work resumption rate of its R&D staff on the first day. To fulfil the large purchasing orders of agricultural drones for the farming season, XAG has also set up a 20-million-yuan relief fund for its supply chain partners who struggle to reopen their factories.

According to China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, only 52 percent of small-to-medium sized enterprises have returned to work as of 6 March. While the coronavirus outbreak put many businesses into difficult situation because of the longer-than-expected closure, XAG has already resumed operations in both its headquarters and manufacturing center. Five key measures have been strictly put in place to ensure that work resumes orderly without compromising the efforts to contain the highly contagious virus.

2020-02-13

Drones used to disinfect Chinese village from coronavirus

Drones are being used in Chinese villages to spray disinfectant in response to coronavirus throughout the village, to hopefully make the village a little safer to walk around in. The drones are being used around China and are being converted to help out.
A villager in Heze, Shandong province, is using his crop spraying drones to spray disinfectant over the village. The drones will be used to spray an area of around 16,000 square meters.

2019-12-12

Chinese Air Combat Drone Types Caught By Satellite

Chinese Air Combat Drone Types Caught By Satellite

A satellite image that was posted on Chinese internet shows an impressive lineup of the Chinese military aerial drones, some of which are in development while others are operational.

The lineup occurred at Malan Air Base, a known hub of testing for these types of systems. The image is yet another stark reminder of how China is betting big on unmanned aerial military capabilities, from high-end unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs) to swarms of small expendable drones.

2019-08-23

Remote GeoSystems Conducts BVLOS Geospatial Video Pipeline Inspection in China

Remote GeoSystems, Inc., a global provider of immersive geospatial video, photo and data recorders and reporting software for survey and inspection, and Xi’an ARTEL Technology, Inc., China’s leading developer/operator of beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) inspection UAVs, are pleased to announce the successful deployment of complementary geospatial data systems for long distance day and night drone pipeline patrol operations.

2019-08-15

EHang to Build Autonomous Drone Network to Cover Chinese Metropolis

Residents of Chinese metropolis Guangzhou can soon expect to see autonomous drones flitting over the city after drone manufacturer EHang announced the launch of its first urban air mobility pilot city program this past week.

2017-04-07

New Chinese Drone for Export

China is the largest exporter of military drones today, and it is ready to place a new model on the international market. The TYW-1, developed by Beihang University in Beijing, one of China’s top institutes for science and technology, is an unmanned aircraft for reconnaissance and combat based on the BZK-005 high-altitude, long-range reconnaissance drone, which the university also developed.

2017-03-30

China’s Anti-Drone Gun Tested

Authorities in China have now begun field-testing their latest anti-drone “gun” that is capable of taking down any un-welcomed drone. Police officers in the country were recently armed with the new drone jamming gun at a big soccer game in Wuhan, China. Any drone that trespassed within the event’s premises were disabled and forced to land through the system’s signal jamming capabilities.

2017-03-16

China’s Rainbow Solar UAV to Make Maiden Flight

China’s aerospace engineers boast the “Caihong” is the world’s largest solar-powered drone, dwarfing NASA’s Pathfinder series that never made it into mass production. The prospect of the drone leading in disaster monitoring is in the horizon.

2017-03-14

China to Introduce Real-Name Drone Registration

The head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has said that the government will introduce new rules to regulate China’s drone industry as unregulated flights have been causing problems.

2016-11-10

China’s Turbojet-Powered Cloud Shadow

The Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) unveiled the Cloud Shadow, a turbojet-powered, medium/high-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) at the Airshow China 2016 exposition, which was held in the southern city of Zhuhai from 1 to 6 November.

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Reports

2021-05-05
Development of the world market of UAV during COVID-19 pandemic

The drone market has grown steadily and continuously over the past several years. The technology is here to stay and is becoming more prevalent across numerous industries. But 2020 was a unique year due to Covid-19. Overall, respondents even felt that the changes in business models triggered by the lockdowns would actually have a positive impact on the drone industry in the long run.