China Says It Has Won Largest Foreign Drone Order

An undisclosed buyer has placed the largest overseas order for China's home-developed military drones, the Xinhua news agency has reported, in a boost for the Chinese arms industry's efforts to increase export volumes.

The order for the Wing Loong II was placed before the next-generation unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) successfully completed its maiden flight, Xinhua said late on Monday, citing the system's developer Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute.

It did not identify the buyer or the size of the order.

The following Chinese article says that #SaudiArabia has signed a $10B contract for 300x Pterodactyl II UAVs: https://t.co/zK5Xi9NQl7http://pic.twitter.com/z7YJdBAKod

— محمد بن خالد (@MbKS15) March 1, 2017

The Wing Loong II, which has wingspan of more than 20 metres (65 feet), is a medium-altitude, long-endurance UAV that has both reconnaissance and strike capabilities.

It conducted a 31-minute flight for the first time on Monday after taking off from a runway in western China.

"Its flight marks China's new generation reconnaissance and strike UAV. Following the United States, China becomes another country capable of developing such new-generation, large reconnaissance and strike UAV," said Li Yidong, chief designer of the series, whose programme is overseen by the state-owned Aviation Industry Corp of China. (end of excerpt)

Click here for the full story, on the Reuters website.

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