China tests indigenous pilotless plane

BEIJING, May 11: China has announced that it has successfully tested an indigenous supersonic pilotless plane and obtained other military ac...

BEIJING, May 11: China has announced that it has successfully tested an indigenous supersonic pilotless plane and obtained other military achievements at its secret nuclear missile base in the vast Gobi desert.

The secret missile base in Lanzhou, 1,600 km west of Beijing, has emerged as the state-of-the-art test site for China8217;s arsenal of missiles where thousands of rockets have been launched, state television and the official Xinhua news agency reported last night.

Quoting Professor Zhao Xi, chief designer of the base8217;s target drone, an unmanned aircraft used to test the ability of anti-aircraft missiles, the reports said China successfully tested the indigenously-built supersonic pilotless plane, making it the second country in the world after the United States to have such a craft.

quot;The Americans spent eight years and one billion dollars to develop such a plane,quot; Zhao said, claiming it took the Chinese just four years and less than one million dollars to develop the target drone.

Sources toldnewsmen here the development of a target drone was indeed a quot;significant stepquot; in China8217;s ambitious military modernisation drive.The Guangzhou Daily reported yesterday China had also tested a new air-to-air missile at the missile test area. However, it did not give any details.

Xinhua said China8217;s first simulator lab for air-to-air missile testing had also been built at a heavily-guarded base in north-west China8217;s Badain Jaran desert, launching the Chinese Air Force into the digital era.

Construction of the secret missile site, considered a quot;dreamlandquot; for archaeologists and adventure tourists, started in 1958, soon after the late Chairman Mao Zedong gave the green signal for it. quot;Since then, pilots from the base have tested nuclear explosions, satellite launches and a long-range carrier rocket.quot;

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In 1984 and 1988, the missile test site went through two technological renovations which enabled it to test all-dimensional air-to-air missiles and use digital signals to replace radar signals, itsaid.

The missile base is also home to China8217;s supersonic fighters, bombers and transport planes, and stores missiles ranging from early models imported decades ago to the latest ones developed by Chinese scientists, it said.

Zhao, who used an abacus to make calculations for his defence research 30 years ago, now has sophisticated computers as well as latest optical, electronic and laser equipment.

quot;It has taken the wisdom, youth and hot blood of several generations of young Chinese scientists to nourish this piece of wasteland into what it is today,quot; said Gen Zhu Jizhang, chief engineer at the missile base, which is full of ruins of outposts built 2,000 years ago by Chinese emperors to guard against invasion by the Huns.