China's killer VTOL UAVs

Last September's Beijing Aviation Expo was primarily a commercial affair, but there were a bunch of cool VTOL UAVs on static in the lobby. These included the SVU200, a creation of US UAV designer Dennis Fetters, that had its first flight recently.

While all the UAVs were ostensibly being pitched for ho hum peaceful civilian purposes - pipeline patrol, environmental monitoring, crop dusting (yawn), and so forth, virtually every stand had at least one picture of their UAV armed up with rockets and the sensors to direct them.

The main SVU200 brochure, for instance, shows the aircraft with 18 rocket tubes and an EO/IR sensor. Given that advances in technology make it affordable to have small guided rockets in the 70mm range, the SVU200 could pack a heck of a punch in PLA service. There can be little doubt that these systems will also find a fertile market in Africa, the Middle East, and Africa.