CH-7 stealth ISR and precision strike drone

The long-anticipated first-of-its-kind flying wing ISR and attack drone has entered service

photo of WZ-7

I recently wrote about 2 drones in the WZ family of unmanned aerial vehicles (WZ-8 and WZ-9) as well as the CH-T1 ground effect “carrier killer” attack drone. All these drones have no direct comparable counterparts outside of Chinese arsenal. The pace of drone innovations is only accelerating.

Here I’ll discuss another member of the CH family of UAVs (known as the Rainbow series in Chinese) – the CH-7 stealth ISR and attack drone, which has entered service after years of anticipation by military fans. Again, China has fielded a unique drone design without competitor in other countries’ services.

CH-7 is a high-altitude long endurance (HALE) ISR drone for surveillance and reconnaissance as well as long range precision strikes. It features a flying wing design with internal weapons bay and other low-observable features to minimize radar signature.

The CH-7 is designed to penetrate highly contested airspace and deliver early-warning, combat zone monitoring, electronic warfare, and precision strike. Its capabilities include detecting and monitoring high-value targets like command stations, missile launch sites, and naval vessels. The drone can also be used for suppressing enemy air defenses and deploying long-range weapons.

Besides regular military airfields, the CH-7 is expected to operate on China’s 50,000-ton Type 076 amphibious attack ship, the world’s largest amphibious attack flattop and also the first dedicated drone carrier.

photo of Type 076

According to its developer, the Aerospace Rainbow UAV Co., CH-7 is 10 meters long and has a wingspan of 26 meters. The drone has a maximum takeoff weight of 8 tons, a top cruising speed of 925 km per hour (Mach 0.75), and a service ceiling of 16,000 meters. It has a range of 2000 kilometers and an endurance of 15 hours.

It carries a powerful active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar and sophisticated sensor suites to carry out long-range air and sea surveillance and detect large surface vessels.

In its ISR role, the CH-7 serves as the "eyes" for other combat units who are responsible for attack, such as bombers or fighter jets, penetrating deep inside enemy airspace through its advanced stealth capabilities.

Beyond ISR capabilities, CH-7’s other mission profile includes penetration at very altitudes to engage targets directly with precision guided missiles and bombs.

The new unmanned aircraft has the potential to revolutionize Chinese long range bomber capabilities, with the country’s bomber fleet currently reliant on the H-6 bombers that are deployed primarily as missile carriers, but lack the stealth capabilities needed for penetration missions. This is a critical area where the US still enjoys significant power projection advantage with its B-2 and B-21 strategic stealth bombers.

With a 26-meter wingspan, the CH-7 is smaller than the H-6 which has a 33 meter wingspan, and significantly smaller than the American B-2 intercontinental range stealth bomber which has a 52 meter wingspan.

Although smaller, the lack of a need for a cockpit and life support systems, which can be particularly large to accommodate long range bomber missions, makes the design more efficient and allows it to carry much more ordinance internally as a proportion of its size compared to manned bombers.

The Chinese counterpart to the US B-2 and B-21 bombers, the H-20 intercontinental strategic stealth bomber, is currently in the advanced stages of development, and has been speculated to have both manned and unmanned variants.

The introduction of the CH-7 stealth drone capable of precision bombing has provided China with a cost-effective stop-gap capability before the H-20 is ready for deployment.

With the two aircraft expected to share many significant design features, experiences from flight testing and operating the CH-7 could help accelerate the development of the H-20 stealth bomber.

The implications of the CH-7’s development are highly significant for the balance of power in West Pacific, with no other states known to field remotely comparable aircraft according to the War Zone.

The unmanned bomber will place significantly greater strain on the defenses of the US and its allies’ military assets from Okinawa to Guam, complementing advances in China’s naval, aerial and surface based missile strike capabilities with an unprecedentedly potent stealth bomber capability.

China’s decades of experience in developing advanced stealth aircraft, most notably its J-20 fifth-gen fighter which entered service in increasingly capable new variants since 2017, places the country’s defense sector in a strong position to operationalize the CH-7 as a truly cutting-edge stealth bomber.

China recently put two prototypes of 6^th generation fighters in test flights – the J-36 and J-50 (or called J-XD), further demonstrating its progress in stealth aircraft innovation and technological leapfrog versus the US, whose next generation air dominance (NGAD) fighter, the F-47, is still on the drawing board.

Beijing has been busy developing a growing portfolio of stealthy drones such as GJ-11 Sharp Sword and WZ-8 near-space hypersonic stealth drone. The addition of CH-7, once again, underscores the fact that China has embraced the concept of very stealthy uncrewed aircraft for independent strike missions, a category of platform that is absent from the U.S. military to date.

In its accelerating military modernization, China is at the cutting edge of innovation in unmanned multi-role ariel vehicles that may well have no direct outside competitors. The competition is increasingly between Chinese state-owned military contractors such as Aviation Industry of China (AVIC) and the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), which is the parent company of Aerospace Rainbow.