- A 21-year-old Air Force soldier with the Massachusetts National Guard has leaked military information online.
- Some of the documents showed China’s plans for supersonic drones, The Washington Post reported.
- China’s WZ-8 rocket-powered drones can travel three times the speed of sound.
One of the documents in a mountain of leaked military information posted online by a 21-year-old airman with the Massachusetts National Guard unit is the Chinese Ministry of Defense’s plan to improve its surveillance capabilities with supersonic reconnaissance drones. It contained an obvious plan.
The leaked documents, sourced from the US National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, came at a time of heightened military tensions between mainland China and neighboring Taiwan. Just last week, the Chinese military released a video showing what an attack on the island nation would look like, insiders previously reported.
Washington Post This shows that the Chinese military is making technological advances in surveillance programs that could help it “target American warships around Taiwan and military bases in the area.”
Satellite imagery included in the document, dated Aug. 9, 2022, shows two WZ-8 rocket-powered reconnaissance drones at an air force base about 350 miles from Shanghai, the outlet reported. A state-of-the-art drone launched from a bomber can travel at three times her speed of sound, according to documents. That’s slightly slower than the US mystery Lockheed his Martin SR-72 Blackbird, which Lockheed claims can reach speeds of Mach 6. .
Drones can assist China with real-time mapping that informs strategy or enables high-velocity missile strikes in future conflicts. Washington Post report.
Taiwan’s air force has many major vulnerabilities to potential Chinese aggression. Insiders have previously reported that if Beijing were to cross the Strait and enter the war, it would very likely gain air superiority soon.
The WZ-8 drone was introduced in 2019, the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, but few military analysts believed it to be fully operational at the time. Washington Post report. Documents reported by the outlet included the drone’s flight path and the bomber used to launch the device.
Representatives of the Pentagon and China’s Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to an insider’s request for comment.