China has successfully conducted the first flight of Jiutian, the world’s largest mothership drone, designed to launch more than one hundred attack unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in swarm operations.
The test, carried out in China’s Shaanxi province, was officially announced by the state agency Xinhua. Videos of the operation quickly spread across social media, highlighting the technological advancement of the system, which had been introduced to the public for the first time during Airshow China 2024.
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With a maximum takeoff weight of 16 tons, Jiutian can carry up to 6 tons of payload. The aircraft features eight external hardpoints for guided bombs, air-to-air missiles, anti-ship missiles, and kamikaze drones.
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In addition to its external capability, the mothership drone also houses more than 100 small attack drones inside its fuselage. These are designed to be launched simultaneously in large-scale assaults capable of saturating and overwhelming modern air-defense systems.
Manufactured by the state-owned Xi’an Chida Aircraft Parts Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Jiutian features a wingspan of 25 meters, a length of 16 meters, an endurance of more than 12 hours, and a declared range of 7,000 kilometers.
According to Chinese authorities, the aircraft will now undergo an extensive series of ground and flight tests to determine whether it meets all established operational parameters.
Experts warn that the large size of Jiutian also represents a vulnerability: being easily detectable at long distances by radar, its real effectiveness in missions against adversaries equipped with modern surveillance and air-defense systems remains uncertain.
Source and images: X @CGMeifangZhang | Xi’an Chida Aircraft. This content was created with the assistance of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
