Chinese defense company Norinco has developed a loitering munition with a range of up to 200 kilometers, making the drone capable of hitting targets on island of Taiwan, reports South China Morning Post.
According to publication, ‘citing data from an article in Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics journal developed drone can travel at speeds of up to 144 kilometers per hour for 105 minutes, which provides a range of 200 kilometers. Drone is also capable of hovering in the air for some time before locking onto a chosen target.’
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Publication notes that drone’s range is sufficient to cross the 180-kilometer Taiwan Strait.
Developers, whose words are quoted by the publication, stated that such small loitering munitions “can be produced at a low cost,” potentially giving China an advantage in any drone arms race.
Newspaper highlights that the main competitor to Norinco drone is the U.S.-made tactical loitering munition Switchblade 600 which has a speed of about 110 kilometers per hour, a flight time of 40 minutes, and a combat range of about 40 kilometers. Both models use a folding two-blade propeller.
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The situation around Taiwan escalated after Nancy Pelosi, who was then Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, visited the island in early August 2022.
China, which considers the island part of its territory, condemned Pelosi’s visit, viewing it as U.S. support for Taiwanese separatism, and conducted large-scale military exercises.
Official relations between the central government of the People’s Republic of China and its island province were severed in 1949 after defeated Kuomintang forces led by Chiang Kai-shek retreated to Taiwan following their defeat in civil war against the Chinese Communist Party.
Business and informal contacts between the island and mainland China resumed in the late 1980s. Since the early 1990s, parties have been engaging through non-governmental organizations – Beijing’s Association for Relations Across Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and Taipei’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF).