Footage of tests of the Chinese kamikaze drone Sunflower-200 appeared on the Internet (Sunflower), which is a complete copy of the Iranian Shahed-136 drone. The videos are distributed by Russian resources.
China has long-standing ties with Iran, reported, that Beijing allegedly purchased a very large number of attack drones from Tehran, including kamikaze drones. but, in China this is not confirmed, but a copy of the Iranian Shahed-136 has already been shown, and officially. Chinese loitering ammunition called Sunflower-200 was presented at an international exhibition held in the Moscow region “Army-2023”.
The drone shown by the Chinese is an almost exact copy of the Iranian one, the only difference is the starting mass, which the Chinese drone stated in 175 kg, whereas Iranian is much heavier – 245 kg. The rest of the parameters are very similar: warhead mass 40 kg, range of flight – 1500 – 2000 km, speed – 160 – 220 km / h, being in the air – to 12 hours. Drone length – 3,2 m, wingspan - 2,5 m. There is no information on the internal filling.
On Chinese resources, the new drone is positioned as an inexpensive loitering munition, capable of hitting stationary targets at long range.
As follows from the video, Chinese drone launches using a jet booster from a small catapult with the main engine already turned on. by the way, The Chinese engine also makes a characteristic hum, for which the Russians “geranium” received a nickname from the Ukrainian military “Martyr-moped”. Iranian Shahed-136 and Russian “geranium” start similarly.
