China may have logged a significant lead in the combat drone battle with the December 11 launch of its jet-powered Jiutian "mothership" in Pucheng County.

 

Jiutian is a big boy—certainly as compared to other uncrewed combat aircraft—with a wingspan of about 82 feet, a 54 foot fuselage, a takeoff weight of approximately 17.6 tons, and a payload capacity of nearly 13,228 pounds. Of course, its size makes Jiutian a near perfect delivery system for deploying drone swarms wherever they might be needed. In addition, the unmanned UAV can fly for up to 12 hours at a speed of 435 miles per hour with an operational ceiling of 49,212 feet.

 

Last year, The War Zone commented on China's drone swarm developments: “China’s interest in swarming capabilities and the ability to launch them from various platforms, including high-altitude balloons, is not new. For military purposes, swarms have a number of inherent benefits, including the ability to rapidly fan out across a broad area to carry out various missions depending on how they are configured, including intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), electronic warfare, and kinetic strike. Individual drones in a swarm can also be equipped with different payloads to give the entire grouping a multi-mission capability. Large numbers of uncrewed aerial systems operating closely together also present significant challenges for defenders who could easily find themselves overwhelmed or otherwise confused about how to best respond to the incoming threats.”

 

Apparently, there's more to Jiutian than its potential deployment as a strategic combat weapon. Both China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) and Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) have identified non-military uses for the "mothership."

 

“Its modular payload system enables roles ranging from precise deliveries of heavy cargo to remote regions, to emergency communication and disaster relief, to geographic surveying and resource mapping,” the China Military Bugle—an official media outlet for China’s military—posted on X, .

 

Get a Sneak Peek at Jiutian