On December 5th, Shen Fei published an article featuring a set of photos of the Wuzhen-8. On December 6th, the American media "Military Observer" published an article stating that although the People's Liberation Army has not officially announced the relevant technical parameters of the WZ-8, multiple sources of information obtained by the United States can confirm that the near space unmanned reconnaissance aircraft can maneuver and fly at speeds of Mach 6 or even Mach 7. Currently, the United States' long-range air-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft missiles have a flight speed of less than Mach 5, and theoretically the latter requires more than twice the speed to target this modelUnmanned reconnaissance aircraftPosing a serious threat.

According to US media, in terms of speed, the maximum flight speed of the WZ-8 can reach an astonishing 7 Mach, which is 8575 kilometers per hour, while the flight speed of Western long-range air-to-air missiles is below 5 Mach. That is to say, even American missiles cannot hit China's "WZ-8" unmanned aerial vehicle. According to US media, China currently has the only hypersonic vehicle in the worldUAVThe main threat of this drone lies in its "almost unlimited ability" to obtain information on potential opponents, its ability to fly in near space to search for US aircraft carrier battle groups, and transmit its coordinate information to anti-ship strike platforms; That is to say, this model of drone is an important part of "anti access" operations, and can also serve as a strike platform at critical moments, carrying warheads to fly towards enemy ships.

Recently, there has been a disagreement among Russians over which country has more advanced hypersonic weapon technology: Putin believes that the United States should be "slightly ahead" of China in hypersonic weapon technology; But Russian media do not think so. In order to refute Putin's viewpoint, Russian media specifically cited an article recently published by the US Military Observer. The article states that it appeared as early as 2019Wu Zhen-8The Type 1 unmanned reconnaissance aircraft can be regarded as one of the high-tech products in the field of hypersonic weapons at present.

If it's really like what this American magazine says, the WZ-8 is truly an invincible existence! At such a high speed, all the current active air defense missiles and air-to-air missiles in the world are certain to have no temper with it. Does the WZ-8 really have such a high speed?

The first official appearance of the WZ-8 was during the military parade celebrating the 70th anniversary of the National Day. The announcer explained that it was a high-altitude, high-speed unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, with less than ten words. Coupled with its sci-fi appearance and cool black livery, it really made everyone have unlimited imagination at that time. As a new type of near space equipment with a flying altitude that can dominate everything, the WZ-8 made its debut at the China Air Show this year.

Based on the existing pictures and videos, we can see that the entire body of the WZ-8 is coated with a black pigment, which is very cool and completely different from the coatings used by other drones. The design is quite sci-fi. The purpose of this coating is to enable the WZ-8 to achieve perfect stealth during high-altitude flight, reduce the probability of enemy detection, and greatly enhance its survival ability.

The body of the WZ-8 also adopts a unique wave riding aerodynamic layout, which is commonly used on hypersonic missile warheads, such as Russia's Zircon and China's Dongfeng-17, which use special trajectories to glide along the atmosphere. This flight method is significantly different from traditional ballistic missiles, allowing the reconnaissance range of the WZ-8 to be doubled compared to the old-fashioned SR-71.

The WZ-8 also uses two rocket engines, which are said to have a cruising speed (reconnaissance) of 3 Mach. After the reconnaissance is completed, the rocket engines increase their thrust and detach at a faster speed, allowing it to autonomously return to the base. The US military media believes that the two rocket engines of the WZ-8 are clearly developed for hypersonic flight, and the use of new fuel technology effectively increases the working time of the rocket engines, achieving a leap from hundreds of seconds to tens of minutes. This technology has been evident in previous Chinese aviation papers.

The concept of near space vehicles was first proposed by Americans. Near space "refers to the space at an altitude of 20 to 100 kilometers, which is 20000 to 100000 meters.

Fighter jets typically fly at altitudes ranging from 15000 to 16000 meters, and generally do not exceed 18000 meters. They are already flying entirely in the oxygen depleted stratosphere. The world's strongest fifth generation fighter jet, the Su-57, has a practical ceiling of 20000 meters, the F-35 has just exceeded 18000 meters, and the F-22 has a practical ceiling of 19000 meters. Wu Zhen-8 fromfighterThe ceiling starts at 20000 meters and continues until it reaches 100000 meters, drifting at the edge of the atmosphere. The air in this area is thin, so the rocket engine comes into play. A characteristic of rocket power is that the operating range of the throttle is relatively large. The high throttle is used for acceleration, and the low throttle is used to maintain cruising. There are two hanging ears arranged in series on the central axis of the back of the WZ-8 aircraft. Experts analyze that these are first hung under the belly of the bomber, and after reaching a certain altitude, the engine ignites and then flies into nearby space at supersonic speed. How fast is that?

According to the data, when the speed of sound is twice that of an aircraft, the nose temperature is about 150 degrees, and when the speed is three times that of sound, it will reach 300 degrees. To reach 350 degrees, the speed of this aircraft is basically 4 to 5 times the speed of sound. The nose cone of the WZ-8 is made of high-temperature resistant resin based composite materials, which can meet the requirements of high-speed flight without causing damage to the aircraft due to the large amount of heat generated by component operation or friction between the aircraft and air. The flight can still operate stably. So experts speculate that the maximum speed of the WZ-8 should be able to reach 5-6 Mach.

In addition, the WZ-8 can carry various reconnaissance and surveillance equipment, as well as warheads, explosive type, electromagnetic pulse type, mother and child type, integrating reconnaissance and combat. This application scenario is too rich. In addition to indicating targets for fighter jets, bombers, and anti aircraft carrier ballistic missiles, it is also a powerful weapon with both kinetic and explosive killing capabilities, capable of attacking surface ships, anti-aircraft positions, anti runways, and anti radar operations.

Whether Americans hype threats or are genuinely afraid, this kind of high-speed, high-altitude, high invisibility surveillance and attack integrationUAVThis reflects China's increasingly dominant position in the field of hypersonic weapons, which even the United States and Russia, who have rich experience in aircraft, have to admit!

Source: Military Black Technology