Commercial satellite imagery captured on 24 November 2017 shows that the Pakistani military may be operating the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) Wing Loong I strike-capable, medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).

The image shows what appears to be a single Wing Loong I in front of a hangar at the Pakistan Air Force’s (PAF’s) MM Alam airbase in Mianwali District – which is located in Pakistan’s Punjab Province – and confirms an online report published on 5 January by the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College in New York.

The South Asian country’s UAV program, which got under way in 2007 with the acquisition of Leonardo Airborne and Space Systems Falco fixed-wing medium-altitude/endurance surveillance UAVs, has been expanding in recent years with the arrival and deployment of the Burraq and Shahpar unmanned aerial systems (UASs).