The Chinese AR-1 Missile Defeating Terrorism in Africa
The Chinese AR-1 Missile is now being offered alongside a family of Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAVs) such as the Cai Hong (Rainbow) CH-3, CH-4, CH-5 and Wing Loong.
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AR-1 Missile
In today’s fast changing technological landscape, having an edge (no matter how small) over any adversary is essential to achieving victory on the battlefield.
Traditional, high-tech military weapons are usually the preserve of Western military powers, such as the United States, U.K, France, Germany and Russia. In coping with this monopoly, African nations are slowly turning towards China to fulfil their military needs. Additionally, the US arms export approval process is usually slow and are attached to political strings.
Unlike the United States, China is not a signatory to the international Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), meaning it has little or no restriction on the sales of armed drones and related technologies.
With China still finding its footing in the overall scheme of things in the defense sector however, Chinese sophisticated and inexpensive drones are expected to dominate the global market even though the US still has an upper hand when it comes to drone technology.
For example, the Chinese Wing Loong, a counterpart to the US Predator drone is price at just $1 million while the CH-5, which is one of the deadliest drone in the world cost less than half the price of an MQ-9 Reaper drone ($30 million apiece) but with similar performance.
The AR-1 missile can also be fitted to Chinese attack helicopters. It is highly effective against a wide range of targets like personnel, armoured vehicles, bunkers and infrastructures.
In February 2, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) released a video of an Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UAV) destroying what is believed to be a Boko Haram logistics base.
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