China simply dropped at life a sci-fi-like idea that sounds too good to be true: an enormous, high-flying unmanned plane able to unleashing a swarm of unmanned aerial autos (UAVs) mid-air. The long-awaited ‘Jiutian’ or ‘Jetank’, as it’s identified by the Chinese language state media, has lastly taken its maiden flight.
Dubbed the world’s first “drone mothership,” the Jiutian accomplished its first flight on December 11, 2025, in Northwest China’s Shaanxi Province. The photographs and movies of the plane in flight had been printed on-line by the official X account of China’s armed forces, China Navy Bugle.
First unveiled on the Zhuhai Air Present in November 2024, the Jiutian is known as SS-UAV, with no readability on what the designation means.
The profitable flight marks a breakthrough in China’s giant unmanned aerial automobile (UAV) expertise, stated the Aviation Business Company of China (AVIC), the plane’s producer.
In the meantime, consultants famous that the plane’s colossal dimension might permit it to hold a swarm of small drones to trigger important harm.
The Jiutian makes use of a “common platform with modular mission payload” design philosophy and relies on independently developed, built-in technological breakthroughs, as per a report within the Chinese language state-owned media International Instances. It has a big cargo capability, a excessive service ceiling, a broad velocity vary, and a brief takeoff and touchdown capability.
A big unmanned aerial automobile (#UAV), named “Jiutian,” accomplished its maiden flight on December 11, 2025, based on the Aviation Business Company of China (#AVIC).
The domestically developed general-purpose drone, measuring 16.35 meters in size and 25 meters in… pic.twitter.com/LwUHyNaEp6
— China Navy Bugle (@ChinaMilBugle) December 11, 2025
The drone provider has a size of about 16.35 meters, a wingspan of 25 meters, a most takeoff weight of greater than 16 tons, a cargo capability of about 6,000 kilograms, an endurance of about 12 hours, and a ferry vary of practically 7,000 kilometres.
It might probably fly at speeds starting from 108 to 378 knots, with a acknowledged most operational ceiling of 49,212.5 toes (15,000 meters).
This plane has been designed to hold as much as 100 smaller drones, together with kamikaze UAVs, and a mixture of air-to-air, air-to-ground, and anti-ship missiles, and might carry out totally different roles, together with airborne sign relay and logistics.
This primarily implies that the Jiutian is positioned to turn out to be a vital pressure multiplier for the Folks’s Liberation Military (PLA), significantly in a high-stakes battle within the Indo-Pacific.
Notably, Jiutian’s maiden flight comes amid an increase within the prominence of drone fight in trendy warfare, pushed by affordability, scalability, and integration with Synthetic Intelligence (AI) for full autonomy.
Using drones allows an uneven benefit by permitting outnumbered forces to disrupt superior armies whereas difficult conventional air defenses and manned aviation, as demonstrated within the Ukraine Struggle.
In actual fact, a not too long ago leaked Pentagon evaluation implores the US navy to undertake reasonably priced, scalable expertise, reminiscent of drones, quite than spending billions of {dollars} on complicated methods like plane carriers.
The report made a case for a shift from high-cost platforms to low-cost disruptors, in step with evolving threats, emphasizing that whereas adversaries like China use low-cost, scalable expertise reminiscent of drones, hypersonic weapons, and cyber instruments, the US navy clings to expensive, slow-to-produce, and susceptible gear.
The report warned that the US dangers shedding an armed battle to China until it carries out a navy overhaul based mostly on the suggestions.
China’s Drone Mothership
Operationally, the Jiutian shifts warfare towards “swarm-centric” techniques, enabling the Folks’s Liberation Military (PLA) to challenge pressure deep into areas such because the Taiwan Strait or the contested South China Sea with out risking its costly manned jets.
Jiutian’s general construction consists of an H-shaped tail and a high-mounted wing with little or no sweep and tiny winglets on the ideas. It has a single jet engine put in above the rear fuselage in a nacelle.
Its main models retract into sponsons beneath the wings as a part of its tricycle touchdown gear. The platform has dual-use purposes, based on the International Instances. It might probably carry loitering munitions, anti-ship missiles, air-to-air missiles, air-to-ground missiles, and 1,000-kilogram-class guided bombs.
The platform can swap mission sorts inside two hours by switching modular mission payloads to fulfil operational wants, together with airdrop and airlift, info help and countermeasures, and strike-and-support missions. Moreover, it may be employed for emergency rescue, transportation help, and systematic operations in each navy and civilian contexts, states the report.
A novel and noteworthy characteristic of the platform is a sophisticated isomerism-hive module in its fuselage that may retailer tons of of small drones or loitering munitions.
China claims {that a} extremely adaptable platform that may function at altitudes of as much as 15 kilometres, the place it may well stay undetected by quite a lot of low-altitude defences.
The Jiutian is a top-tier airborne UAV provider, stated Wang Ya’nan, chief editor of the Beijing-based Aerospace Data journal, who spoke to the International Instances.
He identified that the platform’s huge capability and most takeoff weight permit it to launch a swarm of smaller drones. The dimensions of the platform was additionally emphasised by Fu Qianshao, a Chinese language navy affairs specialist who noticed it firsthand at Airshow China 2024. He stated the large drone’s payload capability is on par with fighter bombers and even crewed jets.
Jiutian is the biggest unmanned plane on the earth.
For perspective, the favored Wing Loong-10 has a most takeoff weight of about 3.5 tons. In the meantime, the Wing Loong 3, a pusher-propeller-driven armed drone thought of the biggest within the Chinese language stock, has a most take-off weight of 6 tons.
This drone provider would help trans-theater operations. It might be launched from mainland China to saturate Taiwanese air defenses 150-200 kilometres offshore. Equally, it will allow heavy-lift from ahead bases, which is akin to an unmanned C-130 for airlift.
In distinction to single drones, such because the Shahed-136 utilized by Russia, the Jiutian would allow “clever swarming” via AI integration, serving to distribute targets dynamically and obtain the next kill charge.
Within the occasion of a Taiwan invasion, the PLA might deploy a number of Jiutian unmanned drone carriers to provide drone swarms and overwhelm the enemy.
With a variety of seven,000 kilometres, it will function past most enemy fighter radii and use its payload for loitering munitions to “hunt” high-value targets, reminiscent of American destroyers within the Indo-Pacific, whereas creating an enormous price differential. The enemy must use thousands and thousands of {dollars}’ value of air protection missiles to search out low-cost drones launched from the Jiutian.
As a Excessive Altitude Lengthy Endurance (HALE) platform, it will present persistent overwatch and fuse knowledge from swarms into the PLA’s Joint All-Area Command & Management (JADC2) for real-time battle area consciousness.
That stated, suspicions concerning the plane’s capabilities persist, significantly relating to its survivability in contested environments. Tom Shugart, an adjunct senior fellow on the Middle for a New American Safety, earlier advised Newsweek that the Jiutian “doesn’t look like significantly stealthy” and might be “topic to destruction by enemy plane or air defenses” earlier than it will get shut sufficient to launch its drones.
“The Jiutian is an enormous platform with an 82-foot wingspan and a 16-tonne body. That’s not precisely a needle in a haystack. Its radar cross-section (RCS) is probably going important, making it a juicy goal for superior radar methods like these on the U.S. F-35, India’s Rafale, and even Taiwan’s upgraded F-16s,” stated Group Captain MJ Augustine Vinod (retd) in a earlier article for the EurAsian Instances.
“Even when it flies at 15,000 meters, it’s not out of attain. Excessive-altitude SAMs and interceptors are designed for precisely this type of menace. And let’s not overlook digital warfare,” he added.
Moreover, Group Captain Vinod was apprehensive concerning the capabilities of the small drones that might be unleashed in a swarm, stating that they might have restricted vary and endurance, making them extra suited to a flashy drone present than a critical navy operation.
“Furthermore, swarm techniques depend on numbers and coordination, however amount doesn’t all the time trump high quality. Trendy air defenses are designed to counter precisely this type of menace,” he argued within the article.
Whereas these arguments maintain substance and warrant nearer examination, the EurAsian Instances understands that a number of superior militaries are pursuing related capabilities to reinforce survivability in extremely contested airspace.
The US is working to remodel the MQ-9A Reaper right into a drone mothership. In actual fact, Basic Atomics Aeronautical Methods, Inc. (GA-ASI) and AeroVironment accomplished the primary air launch of a Switchblade 600 from a Reaper earlier this yr.
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