The rocket makers

CASC is best known for things that leave the atmosphere. It is the main contractor for the Chinese space programme, building the Long March family of launch vehicles, satellites and spacecraft through a series of numbered academies, and it also designs strategic and tactical missiles. The corporation in its present form was created in July 1999 when the old China Aerospace Corporation was split as part of a government reform drive, but its roots go back to 1956. By the end of 2013 it employed 170,000 people and had registered capital of 294 billion yuan. In 2017 it became a limited-liability company wholly owned by the state assets commission SASAC.

A wind-tunnel academy turns to drones

Among CASC’s academies is the China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics, the institution that runs its wind tunnels. In 2000 it began developing small fixed-wing reconnaissance drones under the name Caihong, or Rainbow: the CH-1 and CH-2. The CH-3, first flown in 2007, could carry 70 kg of weapons and turned the academy into an armed-drone exporter. It found buyers in Nigeria, which used it against Boko Haram from 2015, and Myanmar, which flew it in combat in 2015–2016 and later built Rainbows under licence.

Rainbow over Iraq and Yemen

The CH-4 made the family famous. A medium-altitude, long-endurance aircraft with a payload of 250 to 345 kg and up to 40 hours’ endurance, it looked strikingly like the American MQ-9 Reaper, and it was available to customers Washington would not sell to. Iraq began receiving CH-4s in 2015 and flew them against Islamic State; Saudi Arabia used them over Yemen, losing at least 12 by July 2022. The list of operators grew to include Pakistan, Indonesia, Algeria, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Congo and, by 2026, Armenia, giving CASC one of the widest export footprints of any combat drone.

Bigger, longer, stealthier

CASC’s drones have grown with each generation. The CH-5, first flown in August 2015, carries up to 1,000 kg and can stay aloft for 60 hours with a range of 10,000 km; Iraq ordered it in 2024. The CH-6 is larger still, with a maximum take-off weight of 7,800 kg. The CH-7 is a stealthy flying wing with a 22-metre span, designed for around 920 km/h at 13,000 metres; its first flight was planned for 2019, and an airframe was spotted in 2024. Alongside them the academy builds micro drones such as the CH-802, CH-803 and the CH-817 vertical take-off attack drone.

Sanctions and suspicion

CASC’s weapons work has brought it into conflict with the United States. In 2006 the US Treasury accused its subsidiary China Great Wall Industry of a lead role in developing Iran’s Fateh solid-fuel missile. In November 2020 an executive order barred Americans from holding shares in companies with links to the People’s Liberation Army, CASC among them, and in August 2022 two research institutes of its 9th Academy were added to the Commerce Department’s Entity List. None of this has slowed the Rainbow’s spread across the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Fabrieken

• China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics (11th Academy) · Beijing — Developer and builder of the Rainbow drones
• Myanmar licence production · Myanmar — CH-3 and CH-4B produced locally