A Chinese soldier salutes in front of a drone during a parade on October 1, 2019 in Beijing, China. Credit: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
The video was likely meant to promote morale. It was 2015, and the Iraqi city of Ramadi had just fallen to the Islamic State (ISIS). Determined to take it back, the Iraqi military was working closely with its United States partners, and the Ministry of Defense released a video clip to show themselves focused on the task at hand.See The New York Times article on the drone strike here.
Only, the advisor in the video diligently looking over the shoulders of senior Iraqi officers wasn’t American. He appeared to be Chinese. And the sinister looking drone shown taxiing proudly on runways after destroying an ISIS position wasn’t one of the familiar American drones that had, since 2002, flown the Iraqi skies. It was the Chinese-made Caihong-4.
Though the footage was supposed to show off the Iraqi military, the Caihong-4 stole the show. The Ramadi strike was the first time a Chinese-made armed drone was successfully used in combat, and the world took notice.
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