News - Yemen:   Yemeni Air Defense of the Army and Popular Committees intercepted and targeted early Wednesday a  Chinese-made combat drone run by the US-Saudi aggression in Marib governorate.

  “Our air defense shot down a Chinese-made CH4 combat unmanned aerial vehicle operated by the Saudi Air Force in the early hours of this morning with a surface-to-air missile,” Armed Forces spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Sare’e said in a brief statement.

Sare’e explained that the drone was shot down while it was carrying out hostile acts over Al-Juba district in Marib.

The CH-4, has a wingspan of 18m, a take-off weight of 1.3 tons and a payload of 350kg. The Chinese UAV can carry a payload including Lan Jian 7 (Blue Arrow 7) laser-guided air-to-surface missiles, TG100 laser/INS/GPS-guided bombs, and AR-1/HJ-10 anti-tank missile – the Chinese equivalent to the American-made Hellfire missile.

It is specifically designed for high-altitude missions over land and sea, and can fire its weapon from up to 5,000 meters. The CH-4 also has a retractable electro-optical sensor turret, and a datalink back to the ground control station. The CH-4 also boasts a modern, two person control station to fly the drone remotely, with provisions for both line of sight and satellite communications,” Popular Science notes. The video clip also shows what appears to be Chinese support crew in the ground control station.

The Chinese UAV is able to perform tasks including monitoring the battlefield and collecting information about enemy combat, and to carry out military operations such as patrols in restricted airspace, so that it can direct precise strikes on fixed or moving targets at low speed on the ground.

The operation comes days after the shooting down of a  US-made ScanEagle spy drone with a surface-to-air missile, while it was carrying out hostile actions in Sirwah district of Marib governorate.

Back on May 23, the Yemeni Air Defense shot down a  hostile combat drone of the same type run by the US-Saudi aggression with an undisclosed surface-to-air missile as it was on a reconnaissance mission over Al-Marazeeq district in Al-Jawf.

Saudi Arabia is keen to bring in combat drones from multiple countries to gain qualitative air superiority, most notably US, China and Turkey.

With the ability of the Yemeni air defense to shoot down these drones despite their development, it limits the air superiority of the coalition of aggression. Thus weakening the card it is betting on in the battlefield.

In the outcome of the air defense's achievements, the coalition of aggression lost dozens of its various aircraft, warplanes and drones.