Destruction of Chinese drone captured on video in Yemen

A Chinese-made CH-4B drone belonging to Saudi Arabia was shot down in Yemen by supporters of the Ansar Allah movement (Houthis).

The UAV was attacked by an anti-aircraft missile in the sky over the province of Marib. The released video shows the moment of the attack. The target was followed for some time with the help of a thermal imaging system, you can see how a bright dot is approaching it, a powerful explosion occurs and the drone, tumbling, rushes to the ground.

Then, the footage taken with a conventional video camera is shown. At the same time, the background sounds of the use of automatic weapons are heard. In the area of the fall, there were explosions of artillery ammunition, however, it is not known who was firing.

As you can understand from what you saw, the device with the tail number 20311 did not carry any weapons and performed a reconnaissance mission.

It is known that the CH-4B, related to tactical drones, with its own mass of 1330 kg can be used for strikes on various ground objects. They are capable of carrying up to 345 kg of combat load in the form of guided missiles and bombs with laser and satellite guidance.

The drone can operate at altitudes of up to 7000 meters, speed - up to 230 km / h. The maximum time spent in the air is 30 hours.

The Houthis, as usual, did not report the type of missile system used. Previously, for these purposes, both the Kvadrat SAMS received from the Soviet Union were used, as well as homemade installations that are adapted for launching aircraft missiles of the R-27T or R-73 type.

This is not the first CH-4B shot down in Yemen. The loss of such a device was already reported at the end of 2018 and in April 2019.

Also earlier in this hot spot, Wing Loong, purchased in China, and the American MQ-9 Reaper were destroyed.

Alexey Moiseev