As China prepares for a conflict with Taiwan and a possible confrontation with the US military,
the nation is building up its arsenal.
Today, the Asian superpower has the most extensive and diverse range of
drone systems worldwide, from stealth and non-stealth to jet and propeller-powered.
Notably, the Tengoen company’s flagship is the TB-001, also known as the Twin-Tailed Scorpion.
Revealed in mid-2017, it is part of a new Chinese military drone generation of armed
reconnaissance vehicles, and it can carry no less than eight 100-pound anti-tank missiles.
In 2022, the impressive unmanned combat aerial vehicle was caught on camera carrying a whole
load of air-to-ground munitions of missiles and bombs, including 12 AGM ordnance,
five on each wing, plus two air-to-surface missiles on launcher racks on the underside.
It was only a brief hint of the drone’s outstanding capabilities…
A Promising Development
Since 2016, the newly-founded Chinese company Tengoen has left an indelible mark.
It has already succeeded in the military market and strives to bring innovative
technologies to the commercial side. And with the necessary expertise and technical finesse,
Tengoen could plausibly revolutionize the drone industry altogether.
Within six months, the first prototype, TW328 or TB-001, was already in the air.
An industry source affirmed the air vehicle performed an automatic takeoff from a civilian
airport in Southwestern China in January of 2020, adding that the drone flew a pre-programmed
route for 25 minutes, landed, and taxied autonomously to be inspected at the airport.
Then, in 2021, the TB-001 entered service with the People’s Liberation Army.
The Medium Altitude Long-Endurance drone is powered by three engines,
and as the company’s specifications indicate, the prototype was derived from the 10-by-3.3-meter
twin-boom airframe of the production-ready model, with a wingspan of 20 meters.
The TB-001 is considerably different from the BZK-005, the first UAV produced by the company.
The larger twin-engined, single-fuselage Scorpion was driven by a single propeller
on each side and a high-mounted main wing. In contrast, the new iteration stands out as a
long-endurance drone with a twin-boom tail, incorporating a forward-mounted turbocharged
piston engine driving three-bladed propellers in a tractor configuration on each side.
In an unusual move, a third push-propeller is located at the end of the main fuselage.
The drone’s aft ends with a double vertical tail linked by a high tailplane,
offering a structure that combines the tops of the two vertical tails and a supporting
flat one that extends backward on the wing, bracing together. As for the landing gear,
the main undercarriage is positioned right aft of the engines, while the nose gear is retractable.
Its range reaches six to eight thousand kilometers with a maximum flight time of 35 hours, while its
maximum takeoff weight is over 3,000 kilograms and its service ceiling rises to 32,808 feet.
Regarding flight altitude, it is higher than the effective interception
range of short-range surface-to-air missiles, enabling a safer operation.
Capabilities
The Twin-Tailed Scorpion qualifies as a “Reconnaissance Strike UAV.” Being
a non-stealth drone with heavy weaponry, it was never meant to perform reconnaissance, track, or
attack targets against long-range surface-to-air missiles, fighters, and UAVs entirely on its own.
Instead, the unmanned aircraft is expected to provide ground support in
situations where enemy airpower, as well as anti-air batteries,
are somehow degraded or totally immersed in another engagement with friendly forces.
Moreover, the fuselage houses flight control systems, mission equipment,
and a datalink with a ventral-positioned synthetic aperture radar or SAR
module. It also has a ventral stabilized electro-optical/infrared EO/IR turret, and
the system can be furnished to customer-specific needs and requirements in terms of its payload.
Likewise, the TB-001 showcases an electro-optical tracking system ahead of the ventral missile
launchers. As such, it can perform in a “bomb truck” manner and be useful when taking out
heavy concentrations of ground targets. In such cases, the drone can be called in to release
its cargo and rush back due to the combination of its own electro-optical tracking system with that
of other friendly stealth drones, fighter jets, or ground assets.
Bomb Truck
Unlike the BZK-005, the TB-001 was designed as an
armed drone from the outset rather than a multi-intelligence gathering platform,
and it features four underwing hardpoints and a sensor turret underneath.
With such capabilities, the TB-001 grants other ground assets the opportunity to
be lightly armed or mobile, while friendly ground forces can opt to be heavily armed,
transforming the drone’s air support into additional firepower.
Other situations call for a coordinated strike between ground forces which can
address air defenses while the Twin-Tailed Scorpion assaults bunkers, command centers,
or even armored vehicles that threaten to capture and hold land territory.
Equipped with 20-kilogram AR-2 air-to-ground missiles,
the UAV can dismantle diverse targets such as light vehicles or enemy ground troops,
among others. Even so, to wipe out heavy marks or fortifications,
Chinese engineers were forced to introduce the 80-kilogram AR-4 air-to-ground missile.
With a range of 20 kilometers and an altitude of 7,000 meters,
the projectile is far superior to the American-built Hellfire.
And most remarkably, the missile can use infrared, TV, or millimeter wave radar seeker.
For all the promise the drone has shown in the military market,
Tengoen has manifested an appetite for the juicier commercial and civilian markets.
A few tweaks and alterations have allowed the UAV to carry benign cargo,
proving that the drone can indeed be customized for the most specific missions.
Nevertheless, as the Japan Air Self-Defense
Force or JASDF might say, the TB-001 has been up to no good.
Suspicion
In the span of three days, three drones from China’s People’s Liberation Army
were spotted flying in the vicinity of Okinawa. In response, the JASDF sent
fighter jets to monitor the intrusion in the East China Sea and the Miyako Strait.
The unusual activities began on August 24, 2021, with a lone Scorpion intruding
into the considerable body of water northwest of the Japanese island.
The following day, a Harbin BZK-00 flew a sortie back and forth through the
strait. And the third day, another TB-001 followed a similar path.
Not only did the intercepts underscore the evolving UAV capabilities of the
Chinese military, but also the utter significance of the maritime passage
to the broader Western Pacific Ocean and, with it, the precious territory of Taiwan.
More likely than not, the TB-001 will be of great use in attacking land targets in the region.
In fact, the drone has already conducted its first operational sorties, overflying the East
China Sea on its own and then the Miyako Strait escorted by a pair of Shaanxi Y-9 aircraft.
The new drones have allowed the Asian superpower to collect multiple types of
intelligence across the strategic strait, from mapping electronic emissions from air
defense systems to gathering imagery of vessels of interest from incredibly detailed radar maps.
Considering Chinese carrier fleets traverse the strait on a regular basis,
the new aerial capabilities of the powerful drones are particularly critical.
The Chinese model lies somewhere between the American MQ-1 to MQ-9 class, but the
country has far more advanced systems both in operation and in the pipeline.
However, with its mere presence, the Twin-Tailed Scorpion keeps the entire
region on high alert, all while conducting non-combatant tasks…
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