China is ‘planning to turn retired Cold War fighter jets into suicide drones’ to attack Taiwan 

China is reportedly planning to convert hundreds of retired Cold War fighter jets into suicide drones that could be used for a massive attack on Taiwan.

China’s latest Chengdu J-7 fighter jets may leave active service this year and some may be converted to drones, according to state media.

Experts believe the weapons would be relatively cost-effective and capable, they reported. Business Insider. The drones would have similar characteristics to the original aircraft and would reduce the number of Chinese casualties.

Daniel Rice, a non-resident fellow at the Mitchell Institute, said unmanned combat vehicles, or drones, make it possible for China to use “relatively cheap, capable and low-risk airframes as a first asset to attack or soften Taiwan’s position.” . air defense systems.

The planes are copies of the Soviet MiG-21 from the 1960s, which were sometimes known as ‘grandfather jets’.

A Chinese Air Force Chengdu J-7 (MiG-21) fighter jet in flight in China, 1985

Although the Chinese versions of the planes came with multiple manufacturing flaws, including limited fuel capacity and only one weapon, they were still being mass-produced in the 1980s and used in other countries including Pakistan, Albania, Egypt, Iraq and Iran.

Chinese state-sponsored newspaper global times He said: “Retired J-7s could be reserved for training and testing, or they could be modified to become drones and fill new roles in modern warfare.”

But in 2021, aging J-7s flew alongside more modern J-6 jets in exercises near Taiwan, leading to speculation that they had already been converted to drones.

It comes as China is expanding its military and amid heightened tension in the region after the United States shot down a 200-foot spy balloon that was caught flying over Montana.

According to the Pentagon, China now has the third largest aviation force in the world and has almost 400 J-7s in use.

Nearly two dozen Chinese military aircraft were seen in the Taiwan Strait last week.

For weeks, China has sent warships, bombers, fighter jets and support aircraft into the airspace near Taiwan on an almost daily basis, hoping to wear down the island’s limited defense resources and undermine support for the pro-independence president. Tsai Ing-wen.

Taiwan has responded to China’s threats by ordering more defensive weapons from the US, leveraging its democracy and high-tech economy to strengthen foreign relations, and revitalizing its domestic arms industry.

Taiwan has been ruled independently from mainland China since the 1949 civil war, but President Xi Jinping’s Chinese Communist Party claims the island is part of ‘One China’ and has made no secret of its intention to retake the territory.

The Chinese Communist Party of President Xi Jinping (pictured) claims the island is part of ‘One China’

A Chinese-made Chengdu Jian-J7 fighter jet on display at the People’s Liberation Army Aviation Museum in Beijing

Beijing has accused Taiwan of using the United States and other Western allies to bolster its efforts to maintain independence, insisting that the United States is manipulating Taiwan to “contain” Chinese influence.

Meanwhile, Taiwanese support for independence is overwhelming. According to a December 2022 survey by National Chengchi University, less than three percent of Taiwanese citizens want to reunify with China immediately, and only five percent believe Taiwan should be unified at some point in the future.

A series of visits in recent months to Taiwan by foreign politicians, including then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and numerous European Union politicians, spurred displays of military might by both sides.

The Pentagon is taking a closer look at US airspace and authorities are not ruling out that there could be more shootdowns in the coming days after the spy balloon.