Development of the BA-5 began in the 1960s. It was designed by General Zhao Xu, also known as the father of "Chinese UAVs". It is powered by the WP-6 engine, which was copied from the Russian Mikulin RD-9B engine, with some changes on the systems, the reason for that was that at this time the engineers had problems with building a suitable ramjet. Because the engine had to much thrust, the take-off controls were optimized for the BA-5. The Wopen-6 was primarly developed for the Shenyang J-6 (a Chinese MiG-19 Farmer). Until the rocket launching system was available, the BA-5 needed take-off assistence.