The “Jianxiang” drone helps to enforce the Taiwanese military’s asymmetric warfare tactics.
The National Chung-Shan Institute of Science & Technology, Taiwan, on November 15 displayed a series of unmanned aerial vehicles, notably the anti-radiation suicide UAV dubbed the “carrier killer”. According to China’s Huanqiu, the drone is named “Jianxiang”. According to the introduction, this is an anti-radiation UAV with an operating radius of over 1,000km. Thus, most of China’s radar stations in the Southeast coastal provinces are within striking range, and even all ships operating in the Taiwan Strait, including Chinese warships and aircraft carriers.
According to a Taiwanese official, the “Jianxiang” drone helps to enforce the Taiwanese military’s asymmetric warfare tactics. The UAV is small, has a endurance of about 5-6 hours, a speed of 200km/h, a dive speed of 500-600km/h, with strong maneuverability. This drone has an artificial intelligence (AI) system that, after being launched, can autonomously evade the enemy’s fire network and find a target to attack.
Taiwanese media reported that the Jianxiang is a key item in the “Plan to improve combat power” of the Taiwan Defense Agency. The agency has spent NT$11.9 billion, expects to produce 48 or more units a year and will complete the entire project by 2025. The complex is designed to defeat various enemy targets – land stationary and moving objects, ships, etc. To search for the target, a passive radar homing head is used, and the UAV is actually capable of performing a strike at any radiating object. First of all, enemy radars should be the goals for the Jian Xiang product.
The UAV is made according to the “tailless” scheme with a pronounced cylindrical fuselage, a triangular wing and keel tips. In the root part of the wing two pairs of planes are laid out, which are laid out in flight. The nose of the device contains a passive rocket-propelled missile system, behind it is a high-explosive fragmentation warhead weighing several kilograms. The tail part is given under the low power piston engine. There is also a mount for the starting powder engine.
The principle of operation of the UAV from the Jian Xiang is quite simple. Using the starting engine, the drone or drones take off from the launcher and independently depart for a given area. There, they must patrol and search for the radiating target, and then carry out the attack. Destruction of the target is carried out by direct impact of the UAV and the detonation of its warhead. The return of the device after a failed attack is not provided.
It is claimed that disposable drones are capable of solving combat missions both independently and in a group. In the latter case, data is exchanged with the ground part of the complex, which collects information and distributes targets between striking vehiles. According to Taiwanese media, the Jianxiang UAV has passed the initial combat assessment, is capable of flying over the Taiwan Strait and carrying out a “suicide attack” on China’s coastal land-based air defense radar.
According to reviews, the Jiangxiang system is cheaper than the anti-radiation missile “Tianjian-2A”, and even cheaper than the US-made AGM-88, which costs hundreds of millions of yuan. According to the press, the cost of Jianxiang UAV is not more than NT$25 million.
