A new generation of high-speed, long-endurance drones powered by low-cost jet engines has entered military service in China, according to a lead scientist on the project. And part of their job is to lure the US, among other nations, into an arms race where the real trap lies in the budget. The thing that sets the new Chinese drones apart from other models is the low cost of their power source. The jet engines for military drones are expensive. The Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk, for instance, is powered by an AE3007 turbofan engine from Rolls-Royce which costs nearly US$4 million. Add to that the price of regular services and repairs that the engines require, and those costs ends up even higher. But thanks to a recent technological breakthrough, the People’s Liberation Army can now get drone jet engines with superior performance at less than a fifth of the international price, engineering thermal physicist Zhu Junqiang said in a presentation about the project released by the Chinese Academy of Sciences on October 19. As the drones will be deployed in large numbers, the impact of the price gap between military budgets could be significant. China is a latecomer to jet engine technology. It was not until recently that its J20 stealth fighter got a pair of locally made engines. For operational economy and safety, China’s commercial passenger jet C919 is still flying on a pair of CFM International LEAP engines. But on unmanned military platforms, Chinese researchers have had more liberty to experiment. “We built the world’s first compact turbofan engine with a single shaft,” Zhu said.
Full story : ‘War of money’: can China drag rivals into bankruptcy in a new arms race with drones?
