Miscellaneous News

Abominable

Major
Registered Member
I think our Iranian friends are using it as a flex, ie look we are together also with another yankee adversary. At the most the Chinese may have bought a small batch to see its effectiveness is as reported.

From what I know there will be a highly detailed and comprehensive report about all the weapons and tactics employed by all sides in this war, it is the Chinese way.
5,000 is also a ridiculously large number for a country not at war. You only need a few drones if you wanted to analyse them, and the Iranians wouldn't be announcing it. China has companies selling military drones for export that haven't been bought by the PLA, you'd think they'd go to them first before Iranians.

Either the website are outright making the news up, or they are misattributing sales to Russia. Unless China is buying them to give them to Russia, which would be a strange thing to publicise.
 

siegecrossbow

General
Staff member
Super Moderator
This guy seems adamant the second recorded kill of the F-22 was a US National Weather Service balloon.

On second thought they actually had a legitimate reason to shoot it down regardless of nationality of balloon this time. It apparently has lost control and is drifting at civilian airline altitude. It really was a hazard this time around.
 

Virtup

Junior Member
Registered Member
They might be gearing for war and need such a large number of drones not even their factories can fullfill it.
 

xypher

Senior Member
Registered Member
They might be gearing for war and need such a large number of drones not even their factories can fullfill it.
Yeah, that's one of a few reasonable explanations if these news are true. If all the factories are already full, then it makes sense to just buy the excess demand from other countries, especially considering that those are pretty simple drones that probably don't need extensive integration or state-of-the-art specs.

Another possible explanation is that Russia is buying those drones through Chinese shell companies but in that case why would Iranian government publicize such a thing when their modus operandi so far has been officially denying that they sell the drones to Russia?
 

zbb

Junior Member
Registered Member
They might be gearing for war and need such a large number of drones not even their factories can fullfill it.
That's highly unlikely. Whatever Iran can provide would be a drop in the bucket compared to China's own manufacturing capacity. If China really have an urgent need for large number of drones, we'd be seeing Chinese manufacturers gearing up for massive production increases first.
 

BoraTas

Captain
Registered Member
Yeah, that's one of a few reasonable explanations if these news are true. If all the factories are already full, then it makes sense to just buy the excess demand from other countries, especially considering that those are pretty simple drones that probably don't need extensive integration or state-of-the-art specs.

Another possible explanation is that Russia is buying those drones through Chinese shell companies but in that case why would Iranian government publicize such a thing when their modus operandi so far has been officially denying that they sell the drones to Russia?

Or China might be subsidizing the Iranian defense industry for political purposes and making it look like an arms purchase while also getting somewhat useful equipment. The Pentagon does this to small defense start-ups all the time. They buy their equipment even if they are not intending to use them. I still think we are discussing fake news as Trump would call it, though.
 

Abominable

Major
Registered Member
Or China might be subsidizing the Iranian defense industry for political purposes and making it look like an arms purchase while also getting somewhat useful equipment. The Pentagon does this to small defense start-ups all the time. They buy their equipment even if they are not intending to use them. I still think we are discussing fake news as Trump would call it, though.
If China wanted to subsidise the Iranian defence industry they would just provide a low interest loan through some shell company. If they wanted something in return it would be rugs or pistachios, not drones.
 
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