Japanese Fighter Jets Shut Down Three Chinese Drones a Row in as Many Days in the SCS

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Japanese Fighter Jets Shut Down Three Chinese Drones a Row in as Many Days in the SCS


For the third time in as many days, the Japan air self defense force has sent fighter jets out to monitor drones belonging to china's people's liberation army flying in the east china sea in the miyako strait, which lie southwest of the island of okinawa.

These intercepts underscore the chinese military's growing unmanned aircraft capabilities, as well as the strategic significance of this body of water which is one of a number of maritime passages linking the east china sea to the philippine sea and the broader western pacific ocean.

This recent flurry of activity began on Augustus 24/2021 when alone tangan tvo hold one scorpion medium altitude, long endurance male drone flew into the east china sea northwest of Okinawa.

A single People's Liberation Army (PLA) Harbin BZK-05 male drone then flew a sortie back and forth through the miyako strait yesterday.

Today another TB-001 conducted a similar flight through the Miyako strait. In all three cases, the JASDF scrambled fighters to investigate the chinese drones activities.

On both Augustus 25 and August 26 one Shaanxi Y-8-Q maritime patrol plane and one Shaanxi Y-9 JB electronic intelligence aircraft accompany the drones on their flights, according to japanese officials.

The JASDF did not report any other pla aerial activity related to the td001 sortie on augustus 24. The ZK-05 series drones are primarily long-range Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) platforms and the original design was reportedly capable of flying continuously for up to 40 hours at a time.

The standard BZK-05 which was first unveiled in 2006 has a single pusher propeller, a pair of swept main wings and a twin boom tail configuration. The PLA did also unveil an armed variant with a revised center fuselage, known as the BZK-05C in 2018.

The main sensor system seen on most BZK-05 variants is a turret under the nose of a type that typically contains a mix of electro optical and infrared full motion video cameras.

Pictures emerged last year of another version of this drone, called the BZK-05E with a radar system under the nose, instead and the electro optical turret relocated to its lower central fuselage area. Pictures that the JASDF released of the BZK-005 flying through the miyako strait this week show this more recent configuration, with the radome under its nose and an under fuselage optics turret.

The BZK-05 is capable of beyond line of sight operations via satellite control and can be configured to be multi-intelligence gathering platforms. The TV-001 scorpion is also a long endurance drone with a twin boom tail but is substantially different in its overall design from the BZK-k05.

The larger scorpion, which was the first unmanned aircraft to come out of tangan, a company that was only established in 2016 has a pair of engines, each driving a single propeller, one on either side of its central fuselage under its straight high-mounted main way.

Unlike the BZK-05 the TV-001 was designed from the outset as an arm drone with four underwing hardpoints capable of carrying various stores, though it also has a sensor turret underneath its central fuselage.

The pictures that the JASDF released of the scoprions that intercepted this week do not show them carrying anything under their wings, but do show additional sensor systems, possibly a radar or electronic intelligence gathering pod, under their fuselages as well as various antennas scattered around the airframe.

Regardless, these twin-engine drones can be equipped with multi-intelligence gathering capabilities that are even more advanced than the TB-001 including a radar mounted in their noses. They also have full beyond line of sight operations capabilities.

Regardless these drone sorties are just another reminder of china's growing unmanned capabilities and how they will soon become yet another major tactical and strategic challenge in the increasingly tense indo-pacific region.


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