Posted on 06/18/2013 7:49:55 PM PDT by TexGrill
China is developing drones to spy on Taiwan, a study from the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission indicates.
“When fully integrated into the force structure, these Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) will improve the PLA’s [People’s Liberation Army] ability to assess US and Taiwan military force posture and intent and to employ long-range weapons systems,” the study says.
Written by policy analyst Kimberly Hsu and titled China’s Military Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Industry, the study was prepared for the US Congress.
According to the study, Beijing employs UAVs in a wide range of missions, though the extent to which it does so and its level of overall proficiency and integration are unclear.
“The PLA’s focus appears to be on employing UAVs for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and military communication relay, but likely it is developing and operating UAVs for electronic warfare and lethal missions as well,” the study says.
It says that China’s UAV industry has recently made advances in armed UAVs and unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) development, including those with stealth technology.
“Shorter-range UAVs could perform intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance on fixed and mobile targets on Taiwan and in the Taiwan Strait,” the study says.
(Excerpt) Read more at taipeitimes.com ...
Hunh. must be cheaper than all the other ways they do it now.
Woo hoo!
Taiwan can perfect their anti-drone technology.
Free targets!
The drones are capable of determining Desktop Motherboard Designs?
Kind of what I was thinking. But, if true, these are acts of war when penetrating Taiwan airspace. You know, just like we do with Iran.
Because the Russians know the Chinese would use it against them or produce export copies of it and undermine arms sales.
The Chinese did this with a Russian fighter when the supposedly purchased 10 test copies and reverse engineered them into a new Chinese fighter
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