Chinese platforms are not developed in a vacuum. Its own UAV programs owe a major debt to technology recovered from crashed drones in China and Vietnam. For much of the history of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) it was subject to surveillance by other countries, and at the same time, lacked the capability to consistently monitor areas of strategic interest to it. During the period of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam conflict, U.S. aircraft frequently intruded, intentionally, or otherwise, into Chinese airspace. Chinese sources claim 383 US violations of Chinese airspace between 1964 and 1968. Of particular note, between 1964 and 1969 the PLA detected at least 97 UAV overflights. In addition, Republic of China (Taiwan) U-2 pilots flew roughly 102 missions over mainland China between 1962 and 1974. This experience was a major driver of China’s surface-to-air missile and interceptor aircraft programs. It also prompted the PLA to attempt to develop its first airborne early warning aircraft, the KJ-1, beginning in 1969, though a combination of shifting strategic environment and technological hurdles realigned priorities toward ground-based early warning.
Although the United States and Taiwanese aircraft are not known to deliberately enter China’s airspace anymore, Chinese officials regularly complain about U.S. reconnaissance flights along China’s coast in international airspace but over China’s exclusive economic zone. More recently, according to reporting by Aviation Week and Space Technology, the U.S. Air Force has been regularly deploying its RQ-180 stealthy, high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) reconnaissance UAV. Aside from the desire to monitor foreign surveillance flights over or near Chinese territory, moreover, Chinese observers of U.S. involvement in the First Gulf War and Kosovo conflict concluded that the PLA needed C4ISR aircraft to be able to effectively coordinate air and naval forces. The performance of U.S. cruise missiles further highlighted the need to be able to field airborne early warning radars capable of detecting these threats.
For more information about this study, please send an email to inquiries@textore.net and include your name and contact information.