WBZY Northern Might
BW (Bei-Wei or Beiwei, 北威, meaning Northern Might) UAVs are Chinese drones developed by Beijing Co., Ltd. Wei-Biao-Zhi-Yuan Science and Technology Development Co., Ltd. (WBZY, 北京威标智远科技发展有限公司). All BW drones are powered by solid rocket motors to achieve lower overall cost in comparison to turbojet engine. BW series drones are designed to simulate anti-ship or land attack cruise missiles, and according to Mr. Zhang Chaoyang (张朝阳) and Mr. Liao Yunfei (廖云飞), the general designer and general engineer of the BW series, the BW series drone is specifically designed to simulate anti-ship and land attack cruise missiles, such as Hsiung Feng I/II/IIE/III, Brahmos, Harpoon, and Tomahawk.[1] In addition, BW series can also be deployed as decoys and reconnaissance drones.[2]
BW-I
BW-I is a drone designed to simulate low altitude subsonic cruise missile. BW-I has a total of eleven control surfaces with a pair of the smallest installed near the nose section of the fuselage. The midsection of the fuselage of BW-II has a total of five control surfaces installed, with three larger trapezoid shaped control surfaces in a reverse T configuration, and in the belly of the midsection, there are two smaller rectangular control surfaces. At the tail section of the fuselage, there are four rectangular control surfaces in cruciform and these control surfaces are also the largest. Specification:[3]
- Speed: 0.7 – 0.9 Mach
- Cruise altitude: 100 – 300 m
- Range: > 25 km
- Course accuracy: better than 15°
- Heigh accuracy: better than 50 m
- Engine: solid rocket motor
BW-IA
BW-1A is an improvement of BW-I, and it has a configuration of a typical anti-ship missile which it is designed to simulate. The primary improvement is in the propulsion and control systems.[4] Specification:[5]
- Speed: 0.7 – 0.9 Mach
- Cruise altitude: 30 – 500 m
- Range: > 30 km
- Course accuracy: better than 15°
- Heigh accuracy: better than 25 m
- Engine: solid rocket motor
BW-II
BW-II is also known as BW-2, is unique among WBZY produced missile simulation drone in that it has two configurations that share the same cylindrical fuselage. BW-2 is designed to simulate high-altitude high subsonic missiles that may result in different configurations due to different missiles the drone simulates. One version of BW-II has two sets of small control surfaces, with the two pairs of larger surfaces square-shaped and mounted at the rear end of the fuselage, and the smaller set of two pairs of trapezoid-shaped surfaces mounted in the midsection of the fuselage.[6] Another version of BW-II has a dozen control surfaces, with the smallest set of two pairs of delta control surfaces mounted near the nose tip of the drone. Two pairs of the mid-sized delta wings are mounted in the midsection of the fuselage, which are significantly larger than the small delta wings near the nose tip, but the largest control surfaces are two pairs of rectangular control surfaces mounted at the end of the fuselage. One version of BW-II is designed to simulate subsonic sea skimming anti-ship missile, while the other is designed to simulate supersonic anti-ship missile such as Brahmos and Hsiung Feng III.[4] Specification:[2]
- Cruise altitude: 8 – 13 km
- Engine: solid rocket motor
BW-9
BW-9 is a ballistic target drone is designed to specifically simulate the re-entry flight characteristics of short and medium range ballistic missiles to support the training of air defense forces and the development of air defense weaponry. BW-9 has a cylindrical fuselage with four control surfaces mounted in cruciform at the tail end, just like some of the tactical ballistic missiles.[7]
- 30 km re-entry speed: > 1 km/hr
- Max speed: > 1.3 km/hr
- Engine: solid rocket motor