Meet the Yunlong‑1P (云龙‑1P) — China’s latest entry in the “one‑ton class, high‑altitude, fixed‑wing drone” category. The photos below were taken during recent trials in western Sichuan, where the aircraft operated from a 3,535‑meter airfield and climbed to 8,500 meters without drama. The airframe itself is unremarkable; it first flew on January 27th, 2026, and looks exactly like what you’d expect from a cost‑optimized twin‑boom UAV with a secondary military role. Those rockets can be "duel used" to both civilian and military applications for sure
It does, however, come with some modern features: SATCOM for long‑range control, 4,500‑meter takeoff capability, an indigenous anti‑icing system that keeps the leading edges warm enough to avoid becoming a popsicle, and a standard EO/IR turret. It’s built for the kind of rugged, high‑altitude environments where manned aircraft is dangerous and expensive to operation. If you’re guessing that “high‑altitude environments” is code for Tibet, you’re probably right as that’s my assumption as well.
What is remarkable about the Yunlong‑1P is how unremarkable it is. It is a civilian drone program by Chengdu Zongheng Technology Co., Ltd. many like it are being turned out fast, cheaply, and in bewildering variety. Dozens of companies of many I have never heard of, are rolling out UAVs using off‑the‑shelf configurations, low‑cost avionics, and the simple business plan of “build it, ship it, and hope someone buys enough to keep the lights on.”
Some of these drone programs will succeed. Many will fail. But the underlying strategy is the same one China applies to many manufacturing sector it cares about: flood the zone, push prices down faster than competitors can tolerate, and let the domestic ecosystem consolidate around the strongest survivors. The result isn’t always elegant, but brutally effective, and the Yunlong‑1P is just the latest mushroom to pop up after a summer rain.
Wednesday, April 29, 2026
Capitalism with Chinese characteristics of the day: Hawking cheap ATGM (AFT-11E/Red Arrow 11E/GTS9)
The war in Ukraine offers many military lessons to the world, one of
them being that using hard to produce, expensive weapons against,
cheap, easy to deploy OpFor in a static war of attrition does not make a
lot of economic sense. Norinco, being a good communist as they are,
actually listen to customer demand and the ever change marketing
condition now offers. They are now offering an lower cost variant of
the current in service Anti-tank Guided Missile, called AFT-11E/Red
Arrow 11E/GTS9.
This new missile model being offered to export
prioritizes affordability, lightweight design, precision, and resistance
to electronic countermeasures (quoting marketing here). Typically, it
operates in two modes: man-portable or vehicle-mounted. It is manned by
a two-person crew. The entire weapon system features a launch tube,
thermal/daylight sights, a laser designator, and a lightweight tripod
for faster deployment time and foot mobility.
The missile
weighs approximately 14–15 kilograms and has a diameter of 140
millimeters; its effective engagement range from 100 to 5,000 meters.
Utilizing laser beam-riding guidance for high hit probability. It is
equipped with a tandem shaped-charge warhead designed to defeating
explosive reactive armor, with a penetration depth of 1,000–1,200
millimeters of rolled homogeneous armor (RHA)
Saturday, May 17, 2025
Capitalism with Chinese characteristics of the day: Hawking fiber optic FPV
With the widespread deployment of fiber-optic FPV drones in Eastern Ukraine, Chinese entrepreneurs are keen to seize every available business opportunity. While direct drone sales in that region may not be viable, numerous opportunities exist elsewhere.
Descriptions
indicate that models ranging from 3KM to 15KM per fiber-optic drum are
being offered, including a mothership variant.
