Videos: China Conducts Live-Fire Drill With Z-10A Choppers, New Air-to-Surface Missile

New footage from China’s People's Liberation Army (PLA) shows Z-10A attack helicopters of the PLA Ground Force engaging in a live-fire drill, complete with what appears to be a new type of missile, according to a recent report from The Drive.

The footage, republished to YouTube on August 6, shows the attack choppers firing on a number of armored vehicle targets.

The Drive’s Thomas Newdick speculated in a Tuesday article that the weapon is likely a “fire-and-forget” missile, meaning it does not require additional guidance after being launched and is capable of striking its target without being in the launcher’s line-of-sight.

“[The] use of Z-10As in combination with at least one Z-19A suggests that the latter type may have provided targeting data using its mast-mounted millimeter-wave (MMW) radar, forming a hunter-killer team,” Newdick noted.

Watch Z-10 firing new missiles in live fire exercise. pic.twitter.com/23XGLgrGN3

— dafeng cao (@dafengcao) August 11, 2020

This comes days after state news TV station China Central Television 13 released images showing PLA personnel loading missiles onto a Z-10A.

Z-10 loads new air-to-surface missiles with an unknown pod carrying underneath. pic.twitter.com/gI9mjUNsXo

— dafeng cao (@dafengcao) August 6, 2020

Citing China military aviation researcher and reporter Andreas Rupprecht, The Drive reported on Tuesday that the new air-to-surface missile “may already have completed its development and is now ready for frontline use - or, at least, is undergoing the final phase of pre-service trials.”