Anyway, that is a story for another day, what I want to point out here how a Japanese aircraft shadowing this Chinese fleet happened to take the first snap of a Chinese UAV in flight. While the Chinese have showed lots of examples of its UAV program at trade shows and such, none have been spotted on active service.China and there is nothing that you can do about it. (Funny enough, the ethical latte drinkers are keeping very quiet on this.)
While a lot isn't known about the capabilities of Chinese UAVs, expect Iran to start fielding them in the not so distant future.Here is the picture of the UAV operating over the back of a Jiangwei-II Class frigate.
This UAV was once displayed with famous Dark Sword Combat UAV in 2006 Zhuhai Airshow, but at that time no name and other detailed information were available. Obviously, this UAV looks very close to U.S. RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV. But the size of Chinese UAV is smaller than RQ-4, so if this UAV can carry long-time endurance survaillance is still a question. Perhaps this one is just a technological demonstration for future bigger airframe. Related information is with the China Defense Mash Up.
