The Z-19 helicopter is already in service with Chinese army aviation regiment

 The Z-19 is a Chinese light scout and observation helicopter. It was locally developed by Harbin. It was a China's attempt to develop a modern and capable helicopter. The whole development programme was kept in high secrecy. The Z-19 is esentially a tandem-seat version of the Z-9W, which in turn is a license-built version of the Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin. However this helicopter also shares some resemblance with the Japanese OH-1. The Z-19 made its first flight in 2011 and was publicly revealed in 2012. This helicopter is in service with Chinese army aviation regiment. It operates alongside the dedicated Z-10 attack helicopter.

The Z-19 is lightly armored. Both pilots are seated on crash-resistant seats. This scout and observation helicopter is equipped with a nose-mounted FLIR, TV and laser rangefinder.

Secondary task for the Z-19 is to provide fire support. It has four underwing hardpoints and can carry unoperated rocket pods and other weapons, such as TY-90 air-to-air and HJ-8 anti-tank missiles. The helicopter has no nose cannon mount. However it can carry a podded 23 mm cannon.

The Z-19 can operate under various weather conditions and at night.

This helicopter uses the same engines as the Z-9WA. It is a WZ-8A, a license-built version of the Turbomeca Arriel.

The Z-19 has a fenestron tail. It reduces the sound and allows to achieve some level of acoustic stealthiness. It also has an IR-suppressing exhaust system. This feature also gives a level of protection against missiles with infra-red guidance.

In 2014 a version of the Z-19 with a mast mounted radar was observed. It resembles a Longbow radar of a US AH-64D Apache attack helicopter. It is most likely that this version can fire anti-tank missiles in fire-and-forget mode. This helicopter was first publicly revealed in 2017.

Z-19E is an export version. This helicopter is also referred as the Black Whirlwind. It made its first flight in 2017.