After releasing Wuzhen (WZ-8) at the National Day Military Parade of the People's Republic of China, October 1, 2019, it seems that China is not satisfied with the achievement of the hypersonic drone.
Being able to fly Mach 5 was deemed insufficient by Beijing, and at the Zhuhai AirShow 2022 event, China again introduced a new hypersonic drone design, codenamed MD-22.
This pointed design drone is said to be capable of flying up to a speed of Mach 7 or 8,645 km per hour. Weapons with hypersonic speed, such as ballistic missiles, have recently been gaining popularity, especially by Russia, which has ambitions to match the capabilities of the increasingly advanced US and NATO anti-missile systems.
Hypersonic speed is considered to be able to create its own difficulties for the hanud (air defense) system which will intercept and destroy. Anti-intercept capabilities apparently have an influence on the design of reconnaissance drones.
Quoting from the Twitter account @intel1osint100, it is said that the MD-22 in addition to being able to fly up to Mach 7, this drone is said to be able to fly as far as 8,000 km. Speaking of weight, the MD-22's empty weight is 1 tonne, while the maximum take-off weight is 4 tons.
A mockup of the MD-22 drone was shown at the 2022 Zhuhai AirShow, from the specifications of this hypersonic drone it has dimensions of 10.8 x 4.5 x 1.6 meters.
However, there is a possibility that the MD-22 drone will not look the same as shown in the mockup. More than that, it seems that not much is known about the specifications of this mysterious MD-22.
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