Chinese UAV Wing Loong II is seen on the static display during the 52nd Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport near Paris, France June 20, 2017. Photo:Pascal Rossignol/CFP
The 50th Chinese-made Wing Loong II drone was delivered at the end of 2020, showing China's high-end drone products are fully suitable for the international market, analysts said on Tuesday.
Chengdu-based AVIC UAS, a drone branch of the State-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), has delivered the 50th Wing Loong II drone, the company said in a statement released on its WeChat account last week.
It did not give further details about the delivery, or the identity of the client.
Compared with the Wing Loong I, the first entry in the Wing Loong drone series, the Wing Loong II is aimed at high-end users in the international market as it is equipped with more advanced technologies, a Chinese military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times on Tuesday.
Having exported 50 Wing Loong II drones shows that China can now target the world's high-end drone market, the expert said.
More types of advanced Chinese drones, including stealth-capable ones that have made appearances in air shows, could get international customers in the future, the expert predicted.
AVIC started exporting the domestically developed Wing Loong series in 2010, including the Wing Loong I, the Wing Loong I-D and the Wing Loong II. A total of 100 had been exported by the end of 2018, the Xinhua News Agency reported in December 2018.
By early 2019, Wing Loong series drones operated by different clients have fired more than 3,000 rounds of live munitions with an overall accuracy rate higher than 90 percent on both stationary and moving battlefield targets, China Central Television reported at that time.
