The Strike Beagle?!

This post is spreading like wild fire across all the Chinese forums!

Our own Arthur Hubers is quoted!

This big story broke in the Far East first thing April 1st morning.

courtesy of Desperado6 @ CDF.

FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL
28 March – 4 April 2006
Number 5029 Volume 169

Phoenix Ascendant: Harbin Offers the H-5E StrikeBeagle
01:02 | 01/ 04/ 2006

BEIJING, April 1 (RIA Novosti, Alexei Yefimov)– Today at the 12th Beijing International Airshow Chinese planemaker Harbin announced plans to market an updated version of an old warhorse: the H-5 Beagle. With plans for both remanufacturing old airframes and new builds, Harbin intends to market the aircraft both domestically as the H-5E and on the international market as the B-5E.

“This was really a home-grown project for us, ” said Harbin executive Mr. Jianong Wu. “Harbin still has many employees on the payroll who previously built the H-5 and now are idle. The H-5E will give these workers a chance to contribute again, and they will give the H-5 a chance to contribute to their nation’s defense again.”

The announcement was accompanied by a short video presentation depicting animations of the revitalized aircraft performing a variety of roles including Close Air Support (CAS) and naval strike. One segment highlighted an intriguing aspect of the planned design: a retractable bomb-bay gun pod housing four 30mm cannon. New engines and a redesigned conventional tandem cockpit were among other improvements observed.

Longtime industry analyst Mr. Arthur Hubers was on-hand for the announcement. “When CAIC asked me to join their design team for this project I knew right away the StrikeBeagle was going to be a world-beater, ” he said. “There is no other platform with the same combination of payload, endurance, and flexibility offered by a three-person aircrew.” Interestingly, the H-5E will retain its seemingly antiquated 23mm tailguns. “There are many advantages to retaining the Defensive Systems Operator,” Hubers commented, “in addition to the obvious task of firing the tailguns, the DSO assists with target acquisition and post-strike damage assessment.”