On November 17, the Dubai Air Show opened. Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) brought the self-developed U-8EW unmanned helicopter for inspection and attack. This is also the U-8EW’s first appearance at a major international air show.
U-8EW, also known as AV500W, is a light inspection and strike integrated unmanned helicopter developed by the Chinese aviation industry in response to the military and trade needs of the AV500 basic platform with the addition of a weapon system.
In February 2018, Aviation Industry Corporation of China first proposed the concept of U-8EW unmanned helicopter at the Singapore Air Show. According to the needs of combat missions, this type of unmanned aerial vehicle is designed to adapt to each system on the basis of AV500W. Quick response and precise strikes on small targets such as ground personnel and vehicles.
This time, at the Dubai Air Show, the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) displayed a prototype model of the U-8EW 1:1. As my country’s self-developed inspection and strike-integrated drone, the U-8EW attracted a lot of attention as soon as it appeared.
The U-8EW has a maximum take-off weight of 500 kg, a practical ceiling of 5,000 meters, a useful load of 175KG, a maximum level flight speed of 170 km/h, and a battery life of up to 5 hours.
The U-8EW can be mounted with small laser-guided missiles or machine guns, and can precisely strike fixed and moving targets on the ground. Below the nose is a photoelectric turret for detection and targeting. Thunder “2 (TL-2) laser-guided missile. On September 23, the aircraft mounted two “Tianlei” 2 missiles. Under the headwind condition of 10 m/s, two missiles were launched successively, which accurately hit two targets 1,800 meters and 4,000 meters away respectively.
The drone is a type of drone, which has both reconnaissance and strike functions. At present, small drones for civilian use are very common, but there are still only a few such long-duration military drones. Several countries can develop, U-8EW has strong maneuverability, good concealment, strong raiding ability, good reconnaissance ability and quick reaction ability, can mount small laser-guided missiles or machine guns, and can accurately carry out fixed and moving targets on the ground It has a wide range of uses in the fields of combating the strongholds and activities of terrorist organizations, and armed anti-drug and anti-smuggling.