The satellite photographed a secret Chinese drone WZ-8, which can reach speeds of more than 3700 km / h and is designed to destroy F-35 and F-22 fighters

Defense News journalists obtained an image of China's secret WZ-8 supersonic drone.Unmanned

the aircraft parked near one of the new hangars at Lu'an Air Base in Anhui province.

What is known

People's Republic of China activelymodernizes the airbase where bombers of the People's Liberation Army are deployed. As you can see, there is also a hypersonic unmanned aerial vehicle capable of speeds of Mach 3 (more than 3700 km/h).

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The photo was taken using the Planet Labs satellite. Unfortunately, the quality of the picture cannot be called high.

The presentation of the unmanned aerial vehicle took place in 2019. Three years later, the WZ-8 appeared at the air show in China along with the YU-20 refueling aircraft.

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The drone will be able to operate in two modes.The first involves reconnaissance, reconnaissance and observation. In the second mode, the WZ-8 turns into a high-speed missile aimed at destroying American aircraft carriers, as well as fifth-generation F-35 and F-22 fighters.

The platform for launching the drone is the H-6 strategic bomber, which has a range of 8,000 km. It is these aircraft that are stationed at the Luan airbase in Anhui province.

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The modernization of the base began in the summer of 2018.The Chinese military intends to resurface the 3.2 km long runway, expand the runways and build 20 hangars to house the bombers. Also, two hangars will appear at the base in place of open parking lots for aircraft.

According to Decker Eveleth,student at the Middlebury Institute for International Studies in Monterey, China has already built munitions testing facilities at the base. They are checkpoints to check missiles and bombs before being loaded onto aircraft.

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In conclusion, let’s add that last month tooSatellite photographs of the WZ-8 at the Chinese base were published. Moreover, there were two drones in the photo at once. The images were taken on August 9 last year. They are part of classified US intelligence documents that were leaked to Discord. However, their authenticity has not been confirmed. The documents say China intends to use the WZ-8 to spy on US ships and military bases.