By Kris Osborn, President, Warrior
Observers at the Pentagon tracking the rapid expansion and modernization of the People’s Liberation Army – Navy are likely paying close attention to when, or if, the Chinese Navy will succeed with efforts to launch and recover a stealthy drone from an amphibious assault ship.
China Central Television published an animated graphic showing its armed GJ-11 stealthy drone launching from a Type 075 amphibious assault ship, a possibility which … should it come to fruition .. could potentially put the People’s Liberation Army – Navy in a position to much more fully challenge US maritime power projection.
The animated graphic, published by CCTV as a video in 2021, appears to be a “concept” rendering and not an actual demonstration, therefore at very least it reveals the PLA’s “intention” or ambition to engineer such a capability. While it cannot be confirmed that the GJ-11 can launch from one of China’s new amphibs, the possibility would be quite concerning to many at the Pentagon as it would enable the PLA Navy to protect stealth attack power from the sea at a wide range of locations. This capability may just be a “wish” or developing “concept” being advanced by the PLA, yet the GJ-11 stealthy drone has been shown publicly on multiple occasions and does operate with internal weapons bays. The question is, can it launch and land on an amphib? That would require the integration of certain complex technologies, propulsion systems and navigational systems.
Landing a Drone on an Amphib?
Landing a drone on a carrier is difficult enough, as it is something the US Navy pioneered more than ten years ago by landing the stealthy-looking X-47B demonstrator drone on a carrier deck. This was historic due to the mixture of variables involved in making this technologically possible. At the time, US Navy weapons developers talked often about the challenges of engineering an unmanned platform capable of autonomously landing on a carrier deck, explaining that the drone needs to account for wind speed, sea state, glide slopes and a wide range of complexities associated with landing an aircraft on a carrier. However, this was accomplished and the Navy not only demonstrated its ability to do this a decade ago but is now preparing for the operational arrival of a first-of-its-kind carrier-launched refueler drone called the MQ-25 Stingray. It is not clear if China is anywhere close to accomplishing this or operating large sea-launched drones, yet they are known to be developing several prototypes of a first-of-its kind carrier-launched 5th-generation J-31 stealth fighter. However, the PLA Navy does not appear to operate anything like an MQ-25 or fly impactful numbers of operational J-31s, a circumstance which unquestionably gives the US Navy a technological and tactical advantage.
Furthermore, apart from the challenges of landing stealthy drones on an aircraft carrier, engineering a large unmanned system for a short-take-off-and-landing on a much smaller amphibious assault ship is even more difficult. The US Marine Corps of course operates the vertical-take-off-and-landing stealthy F-35B in impactful numbers as the US Navy can travel the seas with as many as 20 of them on board an America-class big deck amphib. China does not appear to have any equivalent to the F-35B, something which gives the US a decided maritime warfare advantage. China’s J-31 stealthy carrier-launched fighter only exists in prototype form and reportedly is a carrier-launched jet more like an F-35C. However, an ability to launch a stealthy attack drone from amphibs such as its new Type 075 amphibious assault ships would rival a 5th-generation stealthy amphib-launched air-attack capability. Nonetheless, even if an amphib-capable GJ-11 did exist in the near future, it seems unlikely they will be able to operate in any way similar to the Corps’ ability to project 5th-gen combat f
Chinese Type 075 Amphibs
The expected timeline of an actual “flight” of the GJ-11 from a new PLA-Navy Type 075 amphib may be difficult to determine, yet the PLA-Navy is building its new class of amphibs with an expanded aviation capability, much like the US Navy approach to its first two America-class amphibs .. the USS America and USS Tripoli.
China’s first of its new fleet of Type 075 amphibious assault ships, called the Hainan, has been using air platforms to expand its ability to conduct multi-domain operations, a move which may help the ship ultimately accommodate a GJ-11 stealthy drone.
The surface-to-air attack networking ability of these new Chinese amphibs is greatly strengthened by the addition of the Z-18J early warning helicopter, Z-9 anti-submarine helicopter and Z-8C transport helicopter, according to a Chinese Communist Party-backed newspaper called the Global Times.
GJ-11 Weapons
Made by a Chinese company called AVIC, the GJ-11 is reported by the Chinese-government-backed Global Times as having two weapons bays between the drone’s landing gear. Each bay, the paper says, has four bomb locations which appear like guided precision air-to-ground bombs.
Will the new GJ-11 Chinese platform fire HELLFIRE-like air-to-ground precision missiles? Or even drop glide bombs? The specific weapons characteristics are not likely to be available, however a Chinese government backed newspaper says the drone is built with two internal weapons bays, each with four bomb locations.
Of course the U.S. operates several strike drones such as the less-stealthy Reaper, yet available info on the stealthy RQ-170 suggests it is unarmed. It can be difficult to optimize a blend of what might be tough to combine characteristics, as weapons pylons or weight and size-adding internal weapons bays can make the engineering of a super stealthy platform more challenging.
While the U.S. is pursuing a stealthy armed “long-shot” attack drone with DARPA and industry, the RQ-170 is not armed and platforms such as the B-2 are of course manned. In fact, the Chinese paper specifically says the GJ-11 configuration resembles a “flying wing design similar to the US’ B-2 strategic bomber.” This is by no means a surprise, as China has a well-known and documented history of designing what appear to look like U.S. design copycat efforts, or rip-offs.
Kris Osborn is President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
