China Restricts Export of Medium Altitude Drones

China has restricted the export of drones that can fly at an altitude of over 15,420 meters and hover for over one hour in gusty winds.

While the move is seen as fallout of Pakistan's claims of shooting down a China made "Indian spy drone" along its border with India, it does not seem to be so.

Experts have concluded that the drone found in Pakistan was most probably a DJI Phantom III, a drone with a 6000 meters operational ceiling. It is equipped with a commercially available Sony camera  with a 12.3 mega pixel image size.

Under  the restrictions announced Friday, Chinese companies will have to apply for a commerce ministry approval and receive an export licence before exporting powerful drones or computers capable of performing more  than 8 tera FLOPS per second from August 15, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The companies will now need to provide copies of export contracts, and documents showing the products' technical specifications and by whom they will be used. This move mimics similar restriction by the US Department of Commerce for export of American high tech dual-use products.

It also shows that drone and computer manufacture in China has reached a level of maturity with proprietary technology being developed.  Chinese media has claimed that its CH-4 drone as being superior to the US-made MQ-1 Predator.

Chinese domestically produced military drones including the CH-3 and CH-4 and Wing Loong drone made by Chengdu Airplane Design Research Institute. The Wing Loong can reportedly reach altitudes above 5,000 metres, fly for 20 hours and carry loads of up to 200 kg.

China has become one of the world’s biggest exporter of drones. Over 160,000 units of civilian drones worth about $120 million were exported from China in the first five months of this year.