China's colossal Jiu Tian drone mothership takes flight, poised to unleash a devastating swarm of 100 smaller drones, reshaping aerial combat dynamics.
By Kris Osborn, Warrior
“Flying aircraft carrier” is the term used to describe China’s fast-emerging unmanned aircraft designed to transport and deploy 100 small drones at once, something which without question introduces new tactical and strategic nuances impacting the overall threat equation. The huge Jiu Tian is said to have made its first actual flight in Northwest China’s Shaanzi Province, according to a high volume of news reports including Military Watch magazine,
Publish specs describe the drone-launching drone as having a 7,000km range, 25 metre wingspan and 16.35 meter length, yet its the drone’s operational capabilities and potential applications which seem the most significant. In terms of sheer size, the Jiu Tian is approximately the same size as a U.S. Air Force GlobalHawk drone, yet capable of launching a massive swarm of small drones.
An ability to launch 100 drones at one time may sound quite substantial, yet the Jiu Tian is a fraction of the size of a C-130 or C-17 U.S,. Air Force cargo planes, platforms which have already experimented with drone swarm launching, are positioned to perform a similar mission. Alongside this possibility, it is also fully conceivable to engineer a large “drone” or “unmanned” platform capable of performing a similar mission, as the Chinese appear to have done. At one point in recent years, the Pentagon spoke regularly and in a public way about developing a drone-launching, weapons-carrying “arsenal plane” able to fortify air attack campaigns and stealth aircraft from safer stand-off ranges. In today’s technological environment, aircraft of all sizes can reliably be configured to perform unmanned missions.
Drone Swarm Attack
There are likely as many questions and unknowns as there are concerns regarding China’s drone-attack platform, yet the aircraft does introduce new measures of survivability into possible air attack. Drone swarms can of course blanket areas with ISR, test or “jam” enemy air defenses or even themselves operate as explosives designed to descend upon and destroy a wide range of targets. The Jiu Tian and the drones it launches clearly impact the survivability equation, simply because they can launch and attack without humans, something which enables airborne drone launches to operate in high-risk enemy environments without placing humans at risk. Should large numbers of these unmanned systems be launched simultaneously, hundreds of miles of area could potentially be attacked without humans operating within range of ground fire. Such a swarm attack could complement or precede a larger manned air attack campaign or support a missile strike. The sheer question of “mass” builds in redundancy, making it very difficult to stop attacks, verify systems in the air and discriminate actual targets from decoys or friendly air vehicles. .
Given this equation, a drone-launching Chinese drone mothership could launch drone targeting and attacks on Taiwan, the Philippines or Japan without having to place any person in harm's way to get close-up EO/IR or infrared sensing data. The operative question, however, would seem to pertain to the relative coordination or technological sophistication of the drones themselves. Would they be AI enabled and able to coordinate closely with one another and adjust course or mission in relation to changing information? What kind of sensing might they integrate, meaning will they combine sensing with offensive kinetic attack, EW or high-powered microwave?
Pacific Threats
These possibilities seem to introduce new variables into any given threat scenario in the Pacific, particularly given the unique challenges drone swarms can present to ground-defenses, radar and any air-ground-or-surface weapons platform. Ships at sea could be blanketed or swarmed with hundreds of small, air-launched drone explosives, creating redundancy and a “mass” attack able to hit and destroy U.S. and allied warships. The Jin Tian could extend China’s maritime attack reach, helping to close its current deficit with the U.S. in the realm of sea-launched air attack. While China is now producing its carrier-launched stealth J-35, the aircraft exists in small numbers at the moment, so the PLA does not have any maritime equivalent to the U.S. F-35C and F-35B.
Kris Osborn is the President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in 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