The Wing Loong 3 drone (top) is on display at the Airshow China 2022, which is held in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong Province from November 8 to 13, 2022. Photo: Liu Xuanzun/GT

China's newly unveiled Wing Loong 3 drone has intercontinental range and can be heavily armed with a wide collection of pods, bombs and missiles including air-to-air ones, with the chief designer of the aircraft at an ongoing airshow stating that the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is scheduled to make its maiden flight soon.
Displayed for the first time at the Airshow China 2022, which is being held in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong Province from November 8 to 13, the Wing Loong 3 is capable of intercontinental flight and conduct missions far away, the Global Times learned at the airshow.

Compared with other domestic and foreign medium altitude long endurance armed reconnaissance drones, the Wing Loong 3 is the heaviest, Zhou Yi, chief designer of the Wing Loong 3, told the Global Times at the event.

The Wing Loong 3 is developed to meet the demands from users, to further develop technologies and to rival top international counterparts, Zhou said. 

While inheriting the traditional aerodynamic design of the Wing Loong series with a pair of straight wings with high aspect ratio plus a set of V-shaped tail wings to provide a very high lift-drag ratio, the Wing Loong 3's wingspan is very large, exceeding 24 meters. This will meet the demands from Chinese and foreign users for "cross regional long range flight and extended mission," the drone designer said.

The drone is characterized by its long range, heavy payload and multirole capabilities. Major performance criteria of the Wing Loong 3, including its range, endurance and cruise altitude, are of top tiers around the world, Zhou said.

The Wing Loong 3 on display at the airshow carried many different types of payloads, including  anti-radiation missiles, guided glide bombs, sonobuoy pods, cluster bombs, communications reconnaissance pod, guided rockets, sonar reconnaissance pods, loitering munitions and even air-to-air missiles like the PL-10E, making it a drone capable of air-to-air combat. It can also carry optical, infrared, radar and communications signal reconnaissance payloads.

Zhou said that the Wing Loong 3 can carry payloads under its wings, under its fuselage and within its fuselage. The payload weight and number of hardpoints of the drone are all world-leading top class, he said.

With so many different types of payloads being displayed at the airshow, the Wing Loong 3 exhibited its multirole capabilities that can meet different demands from Chinese and foreign users, Zhou said.

It can carry out military and civilian missions including cross regional armed reconnaissance, cooperative support, combat under confrontational environments and emergency rescue, analysts said.

With all development procedures going according to plan, the Wing Loong 3 is expected to conduct its first flight soon and achieve operational capability as fast as possible, Zhou told the Global Times.

The Wing Loong 3 will also spawn variants to meet different user demands, Zhou said.

With payload expansions, the aircraft can conduct maritime escort, anti-submarine, aerial fire support, anti-radiation attack, low altitude alert patrol and interception, electronic reconnaissance and disruption, communications relay as well as maritime search and rescue missions, and it can even team up with manned aircraft and other drones, analysts said.

The maker of the drone, the state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China, also displayed other members in the Wing Loong drone family at Airshow China 2022, including the smaller Wing Loong 1E, the Wing Loong 2D, the Wing Loong 2Y and the Wing Loong 2H, as well as the faster Wing Loong 10A and the Wing Loong 10B.