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PygmalionOfCyprus / cmo-db-requests

Public issue/request tracking for the Command: Modern Operations database
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CH7 Stealth drone #4339

Closed Siegemiester closed 5 months ago

Siegemiester commented 7 months ago

DB Selector

DB3K

Baseline

3168

Hypothetical

No

Name

CH7

Country

China

Service

PLAAF

In Commission

2022

Number in Service

Few

Length (m)

10

Wingspan (m)

21.95

Height (m)

3.2

Empty Weight (kg)

6500

Maximum Takeoff Weight (MTOW) (kg)

12250

Payload Weight (kg)

2000

Crew

0

Propulsion

1 x Turbofan engine of unknown make

Rate of Climb (ft/min)

No response

Service Ceiling (ft)

42650

Military/Afterburner Speed (kt)

478

Cruise Speed (kt)

400

Supercruise

No

Ferry Range (nm)

1890

Endurance (min)

No response

Takeoff / Landing Distance (m)

No response

Fuel Capacity (kg)

No response

Sensors

Similar to GJ11 but no sources on specifics

Mounts

2x Internal Weapons bays

Loadout Options

1x OECM Package (internal, early 2020s) 4x LS-6-500 4x LS-6-600 ER 8x FT7 8x LS-6-50 Unarmed Recon 2x TL500 (Chinese JSOW equivalent) 2x KD88

Comms/Datalinks

Same as GJ11

Aircraft Codes

No response

Comments

The primary role of this drone would be reconaissance and standoff ground/naval strike. but Source 2 suggest this drone is possibly able to carry OECM packages internally as well

Physically this drone looks very similar to the X47B with only slightly wider dimensions (thus slower speed but longer range)

Its stealth characteristics are likely to be on par with the best western flying wing UCAVs given its extremely recent manufacture and its similar physical features

Sources

https://www.militarydrones.org.cn/ch-7-rainbow-stealth-uav-drone-china-price-manufacturer-p00097p1.html

https://www.defenceconnect.com.au/air/13533-ch-7-stealth-uav-ready-by-years-end-says-chinese-state-media

https://www.sae.org/news/2018/11/the-ch-7-china%E2%80%99s-latest-unmanned-combat-air-vehicle

PygmalionOfCyprus commented 6 months ago

>Its stealth characteristics are likely to be on par with the best western flying wing UCAVs given its extremely recent manufacture and its similar physical features

image

Caaaaaareful with those assumptions. There's more to stealth than looks. Chinese VLO tech, while much better than the Russians (lol) is still known to be behind Western equivalents, especially re: RAM. Shaping is probably good, though.

I will probably give this the same sig as the X-47 anyway, but just something to keep in mind.

PygmalionOfCyprus commented 5 months ago

I'm gonna hold off on this until we get proof that this is actually intended for deployment w/ the PLA or it gets some export customers. CASC makes about a billion CH-X drones and only a few of them are actually adopted domestically or successful on the market.