China has powerful military drones but won’t use them like the US, analysts say
- The killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in a US air strike last week was evidence of the deadly power of modern unmanned aerial vehicles
- But while China has been building up its own fleet of UAVs, analysts say it is unlikely ever to employ them for such an audacious mission
During last Friday’s operation, a US MQ-9 Reaper, controlled from afar, identified and locked in on Soleimani’s convoy near Baghdad airport. It fired at least two missiles at the two vehicles, killing everyone inside.
Introduced to the US military in 2007, the long-endurance stealth drone is capable of carrying up to four AGM-114 Hellfire missiles and other bombs, and can fly for up to 14 hours at a cruising speed of more than 300km/h (186mph). It is piloted by two operators from a ground station up to 1,850km (1,150 miles) away.
While the Soleimani assassination is probably the drone’s highest profile mission to date, it was also used in the air strike in Raqqa, Syria in 2015 that killed Islamic State terrorist Mohammed Emwazi, or “Jihadi John” as he was dubbed by the press.
Not all of the United States’ drone missions have been so successful, however.