Chinas Giant Spy Drone Just Tailed A U.S. Navy Cruiser

(The National Interest) David Axe July 29 2019 China reportedly activated one of its Soar Dragon large spy drones to keep tabs on a U.S. Navy cruiser that sailed through the Taiwan Strait in late July 2019. The Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Antietam transited the Taiwan Strait on July 24 2019 as a show of force. In addition to the Soar Eagle Beijing sortied J-11 fighters 10 times during Antietams nine-hour transit according to Taiwans Up Media. The Chinese pilots reportedly issued a radio warning to one of Antietams MH-60R helicopters as the rotor-craft was flying along the west side of the strait air space about which China is particularly sensitive. With a wingspan measuring around 80 feet and an endurance of perhaps 10 hours the subsonic Soar Eagle is Chinas answer to the U.S. militarys own Global Hawk surveillance drone. The unmanned aerial vehicle also is known by its Chinese name Xianglong. The Global Hawk which the U.S. Air Force and Navy operate in separate variants can surveil hundreds of thousands of square miles of ocean on a single mission detecting and tracking ships among other potential targets. China has deployed Soar Eagles in three strategic regions according to Offiziere a military news website. Most recently the large drone appeared at an airbase in Jilin province near Chinas borders with Russia and China. Satellite imagery shows two Xianglong parked on the apron not far from two portable aircraft shelters" Offiziere reported. The mobile support shelters were erected in late December 2017. The platforms associated ground control station and primary satellite link were located east of the runway on a new hardstand."