Meet China’s giant Jiutian drone: 6-tonne payload, 12-hour endurance and a swarm-carrying design; how powerful is Beijing’s flying mothership?

China's Jiutian drone took off from Pucheng County, in Shaanxi Province. The state-run Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) announced the flight. The aircraft first appeared in public at the 2024 Zhuhai Airshow.

It's also called the SS-UAV.

China’s Jiutian Drone: How big is it?

The Jiutian is about 16.35 meters long, with a wingspan of 25 meters. AVIC puts its maximum takeoff weight at around 16 metric tons.


Other armed drones look small beside it. The Wing Loong-10 weighs about 3.2 tons at takeoff, so the Jiutian is roughly five times heavier. The Wing Loong 3, the largest in its family, tops out near six tons. Extended-range versions of the U.S. MQ-9 Reaper come in just under six tons.

What can it carry, and how far?

AVIC lists a payload of up to 6,000 kilograms. That's about 37 percent of the aircraft's takeoff weight. It's also close to the total takeoff weight of an extended-range Reaper, so the Jiutian can carry a whole Reaper's weight in cargo.

The other figures are a ferry range of about 7,000 kilometers and an endurance of up to 12 hours. The stated ceiling is 15,000 meters. Speed ranges from 108 knots to 378 knots. Ferry range means the distance with minimal load, so the real combat radius will be shorter. AVIC hasn't published one.

Why call it a mothership?

The answer is in the payload bay. At Zhuhai, the module carried Chinese text that machine-translates as "ascension of the beehive mission module." The English label read "Isomerism Hive Module," which looks like a mistranslation.

AVIC later told state media the module was meant to show a swarm-launch capability. That means releasing many smaller drones from the air. How many it could carry hasn't been stated.

The drone isn't limited to that job. It has been shown with air-to-surface and air-to-air weapons. AVIC calls it a "general purpose" design, and other possible roles include signal relay and logistics.

The shape is unusual. It has a high, barely swept wing with small winglets and an H-shaped tail. A single jet engine sits in a nacelle on top of the rear fuselage.

The main landing gear folds into pods under the wings. The gear looks heavy and tough, which could mean the drone can use rough airstrips. That's an inference from its appearance, not something AVIC has said. Observers have compared the layout to the A-10 and the OV-10 Bronco.

The first flight shows the airframe works. It doesn't show the swarm system works. No public information yet covers how many drones it can launch, how they're controlled, or how they'd be recovered.

Weapons loads, sensors and production plans are also unconfirmed. For now, the Jiutian is a very large, flexible platform with a clear swarm-launch purpose that hasn't yet been demonstrated.