China's domestically-made large civilian unmanned aerial vehicle signs its first overseas deal
On August 29th, the second Low-altitude Industry Innovation and Development Conference was grandly held in Shihezi, Xinjiang. As a key event in the development of China's low-altitude industry, this conference attracted widespread attention. CCTV News Channel reported on it twice, and Xinhua News Agency also published a feature article. Notably, during the conference, domestic large civil unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems successfully won overseas "whole machine + service" orders, reaching cooperation agreements with Indonesia, Equatorial Guinea, and Kazakhstan, marking a significant breakthrough in China's domestic large civil UAV industry. The company that secured these overseas orders was Chengdu Sentong Vision Technology Co., Ltd., one of the conference's organizers.
The signing results were fruitful. Chengdu Sentong signed a purchase cooperation agreement for 20 large UAV systems (HY100) with PT Drone Transport Company of Indonesia, a purchase agreement for 10 sets of the same UAV systems with the agricultural department of Equatorial Guinea, and a strategic cooperation agreement on agricultural pest control and logistics transportation with the China International Economic Development Center of Kazakhstan. The large-scale purchase of UAV systems highlights the high recognition of China's large UAV technology in the international market and also means that Chengdu Sentong has become a pioneer in the "going global" of China's low-altitude industry.
Agung Sasongkojati, the CEO of PT Drone Transport Company of Indonesia, told CCTV News, "China is in the leading position in the field of large UAV freight. I want to introduce it to Indonesia because it can carry a large amount of goods and can carry two tons of cargo across the ocean to places that ordinary aircraft cannot reach."
It is worth noting that CCTV and Xinhua News Agency's reports particularly mentioned Chengdu Sentong's breakthroughs in technical compliance and international access. Currently, Chengdu Sentong is fully promoting the airworthiness certification process of the HY100 UAV in Indonesia and is expected to obtain the world's first export airworthiness certificate (VTC) for large civil UAVs. This progress provides an "access key" for China's large civil UAVs to enter the international market and lays the foundation for the international development of the industry.
Unlike the traditional "equipment export" model, Chengdu Sentong adopts the "whole machine + service" model, providing a full-cycle service system while exporting advanced large UAV systems. According to the cooperation agreement, Chengdu Sentong will provide comprehensive talent training support to the cooperating countries, including theoretical and practical training for flight personnel and technical training for maintenance personnel, helping local areas build professional UAV talent teams. In the future, the company plans to establish a localized maintenance and support service network in the cooperating countries, forming a complete cooperation loop of "technology + service + ecosystem", which is also the core advantage of China's low-altitude industry solutions being recognized internationally.
In the CCTV report, the "simultaneous cooperative flight operation of two HY100 UAVs" of Chengdu Sentong was also displayed. The high autonomous flight capabilities demonstrated by the two large UAVs strongly prove the high reliability and high intelligence of the system.
As a "technical benchmark" in the low-altitude industry, Chengdu Sentong not only achieved breakthroughs in overseas markets but also performed well in the domestic market. It is reported that this year, Chengdu Sentong's agricultural and forestry pest control operation scale in Heilongjiang Province has increased by 30 times, fully verifying the maturity and market competitiveness of its technical solutions in domestic scenarios and providing a practical sample for overseas cooperation.
With China's large civil UAVs going global, Chinese technology will provide solutions for the modernization of agriculture, improvement of logistics efficiency, and optimization of emergency response in more countries. As an active participant in the Belt and Road Initiative and a pioneer in national low-altitude industry cooperation, Chengdu Sentong will take this overseas order as a new starting point to continuously promote the global output of large unmanned aerial vehicle technology and services, and help China's low-altitude industry become a "new business card" of global industrial innovation.