President Xi Jinping reviewed the armed forces at the heart of Beijing Tuesday morning, his first on National Day, to mark the 70th founding anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.
Standing in a black open-roof Red Flag limousine, Xi, also as the general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, gave the order to Yi Xiaoguang, commander-in-chief of the military parade, to start the review.
China’s unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) phalanxes were in the spotlight in the military parade.
The weaponry includes reconnaissance drones in multi-range and multi-altitude.
Among them, a high-altitude and high-speed reconnaissance drone, the only all black-coating UAV in the parade, made public appearance for the first time.
The phalanx showcases the new-type combat force in the future warfare and all these aerial armaments reviewed are domestically-developed, said Dang Dongxing, a military official of one of the phalanxes, noting that China’s unmanned combat armaments are close to or have reached the world leading level in some aspects.
Also displayed in the parade were China’s reconnaissance-strike drones, such as GJ-2 and GJ-11, as well as unmanned underwater vehicles.