The Chinese language Jiu Tian unmanned plane, generally referred because the world’s first ‘drone mothership,’ is anticipated to make its first flight close to the tip of June 2025, paving the best way to the introduction of the world’s first in a wholly new class of navy plane. The plane was designed with alongside 7,000 kilometre vary and at excessive 15,000 meter operational altitude, and has the capability to hold 100 small drones which it may possibly launch whereas airborne. It may well alternatively carry a spread of different precision guided weapons, probably cruise missiles. First unveiled on the Zhuhai Airshow in November 2024, the is meant to serve not solely as a launch platform for as much as 100 drones, but additionally as a management node for the plane after they launch. No comparable plane are recognized to be being developed anyplace on the planet. It has been broadly likened to a flying plane provider, and if profitable it has the potential to be adopted into service by a lot bigger drone carriers deploying bigger portions of drones or bigger drone courses. Its growth has occurred at a time when drone warfare is taking part in an more and more central position in trendy conflicts, as seen in theatres from Sudan and Yemen to South Lebanon and Ukraine.
The Jiu Tian’s growth follows a broader development in the direction of China’s drone business main the world in introducing solely new sorts of unmanned aerial automobiles for navy use. Different notable examples have included the CH-5 unmanned lengthy vary stealth bomber, WZ-9 Divine Eagle which is designed to deploy a number of lengthy vary radar from very excessive altitudes, and the WZ-7 surveillance drone which is at present the world’s solely air respiratory plane designed to function at hypersonic speeds. Different hypersonic drones have since been unveiled within the nation. Nonetheless, the complexity of utilizing an plane just like the Jiu Tian as a flying drone provider will pose unprecedented challenges in growth, with China’s robust lead within the portions of AI analysis being carried out anticipated to offer it with distinctive benefits in operationalising such a system. Whereas ideas for flying plane carriers have been explored because the early years of the Chilly Struggle, particularly in the US, the Jiu Tian program poises China to turn out to be the primary nation on the planet to discipline such a system.
