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| North Korea's Saebyeol-4 drone. |
| Source: topwar.ru |
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) recently unveiled a new Saebyeol-4 strategic reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle. However, South Korean military analyst Minseok (James) Kim believes that the North Korean drone uses components of the Chinese Chengdu J-7 fighter jet.
First of all, the expert drew attention to the chassis of the drone. It reminded him of the chassis of the Chinese J-7 fighter. Kim emphasizes that the chassis layout itself has remained unchanged. But the wheels of the main rack were reoriented from the inner to the outer position. The front landing gear also remained unchanged.
As a result, the South Korean analyst concludes, the unmanned aerial vehicle, which the DPRK passes off as its own innovation, could have been designed and manufactured using ready-made solutions, the authorship of which belongs to Chinese, not North Korean designers.
In addition, the South Korean press also draws attention to the obvious external similarity of the North Korean UAV with the American strategic reconnaissance drone RQ-4 Global Hawk in the Rangehawk version. The exact take-off characteristics of the North Korean UAV have not yet been reported, but Minseok Kim assumes that the take-off weight is limited to nine tons, since the chassis of Chinese J-7 fighters is designed for this weight.
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| A J-7 fighter jet of the Myanmar Air Force. |
| Source: topwar.ru |
However, the desire of the South Korean press to criticize the DPRK drone is quite understandable. In fact, it does not matter whose chassis the new drone uses, as long as it can operate effectively in combat conditions and show appropriate results. It is the results of the work of drones that are the criteria for their evaluation, therefore, there is no point in searching for the correspondence of individual drone components to Chinese aircraft.
