Image source: topwar.ru
Footage of tests of the Chinese kamikaze drone Sunflower-200 (Sunflower), which is a complete copy of the Iranian drone Shahed-136, appeared on the Network. The videos are distributed by Russian resources.
China has long-standing ties with Iran, it was reported that Beijing allegedly bought a very large number of attack drones from Tehran, including kamikaze drones. However, this is not confirmed in China, but a copy of the Iranian Shahed-136 has already been shown, and officially. A Chinese barrage munition called Sunflower-200 was presented at the international exhibition "Army-2023" held in the Moscow region.
The drone shown by the Chinese is an almost exact copy of the Iranian one, the difference is only in the starting mass, which the Chinese drone claims to be 175 kg, while the Iranian one is much heavier - 245 kg. The other parameters are very similar: a warhead weighing 40 kg, a flight range of 1500 - 2000 km, a speed of 160 - 220 km / h, being in the air - up to 12 hours. The length of the drone is 3.2 meters, the wingspan is 2.5 meters. There is no information on the inner filling.
Image source: topwar.ru
On Chinese resources, the new drone is positioned as an inexpensive barrage munition capable of hitting stationary targets at long range.
As follows from the video, the Chinese drone starts using a jet accelerator from a small catapult with the main engine already turned on. By the way, the Chinese engine also emits a characteristic buzzing, for which the Russian "Geraniums" received the nickname "shahid-moped" from the Ukrainian military. Iranian Shahed-136 and Russian Geraniums will start similarly.
