China’s new stealth combat drones are likely to be paired with fighter jets, playing the role of “loyal wingman” and acting as a “force multiplier” for the country’s airborne operations, according to military analysts.

Citing satellite imagery from Planet Labs, defence news site The War Zone reported last week that a pair of GJ-11 Sharp Sword unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV) had become more active in recent months at western China’s Malan Air Base, known to be a major hub for drone testing.

The sightings come amid speculation over the future of a US initiative to develop the next generation of fighter jets and air combat systems, prompting comparisons between the military rivals’ drone programmes.

“The US military has no such drones in active development, at least that we know about, and public interest in designs of this kind has completely disappeared within America’s armed forces,” The War Zone reported.

 

“This is all despite extensive work the US military funded on stealthy flying wing UCAVs in the past, and their absence has become particularly pronounced when it comes to US Air Force future planning.”

The GJ-11, manufactured by Hongdu Aviation Industry Group, is designed for precision strike and aerial reconnaissance missions. It features a stealthy design with a tailless flying wing and two internal weapons bays.

Images of a prototype of GJ-11 first circulated online in 2013 when the first test flight was conducted. The drone later appeared in a military parade in October 2019, sporting an overhauled rear design.

Georgios Salapasidis, head of platforms and on-board sensors at global military intelligence company Janes, said the GJ-11 was a “necessary step” for China in its effort to “secure expeditionary capabilities in contested areas” where its adversaries operated sophisticated air defence systems.

“The GJ-11, among other systems, may provide the ability to gather information on enemy units, suppress their operation by guiding fire from other platforms, or carry weapons and execute a strike independently,” Salapasidis said.

The GJ-11’s recent appearance in satellite images and Chinese media suggests that the aircraft will probably be teamed up with manned weapons for the air force and navy.

Satellite images from June showed two GJ-11 mock-ups at a testing site near China’s latest Type 076 amphibious assault ship, which is under construction in Shanghai.

In October 2022, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV aired a computer-generated graphic of a new twin-seat J-20 fighter jet commanding stealth attack drones resembling the GJ-11, to illustrate how the aircraft could be used together in what is known as manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T).

James Char, a research fellow with the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said the concept was similar to the US military’s “loyal wingman” project, which combines AI-enabled combat drones with next-generation manned fighters.

First outlined by the United States in its Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) initiative, MUM-T has become a crucial tool for future airborne operations as China and the US look to revamp their fighter jet programmes.

 

While China has continued to upgrade its J-20 jets, it has also worked to develop next-generation fighter jets with drones at the side.

In June, China conducted a test flight of a new fighter jet featuring dual-inlet turbojet engines and a blended wing body, in which segments of the wings could detach to form two autonomous drones propelled by electric ducted fans.

Salapasidis said China and other nations were exploring the feasibility and possible returns of the “loyal wingman” concept in a bid for superior combat firepower and effectiveness. He added that the technology could become a “force multiplier” once it matured.

“The expectation is that multiple autonomously operating [unmanned aircraft systems], in concert with a limited number of manned aircraft, will constitute a mass of sensors and weapons that will secure the tactical advantage, while unmanned and manned platforms combined will present a prohibitively large number of targets for the enemy to neutralise,” Salapasidis said.

He added that unmanned aircraft systems would be “attritable”, meaning they would be expected to return to their launching platform, but if destroyed, their “relatively low cost and replaceability will not result in a significant loss of overall capability”.

Timothy Heath, a senior international defence researcher at the Rand Corporation, an American think tank, said manned-unmanned collaboration was a “trend” in aerial warfare, and China was probably exploring ways to carry out these operations in line with the US military.

“Drones are poised to play a key role in future warfare due to their lower cost and versatility. China could use drones and drone carriers to provide better reconnaissance support for long-distance operations along the Indian Ocean, for example,” Heath said.

“The teaming of manned and unmanned aircraft also allows both China and the US to operate advanced fighters at lower cost and in a more flexible manner.”

With the increasing emphasis on drones in modern warfare, the US recently signalled a possible shift towards unmanned platforms in its NGAD programme.

The NGAD initiative aims to create the next generation of American air combat systems, and development of a crewed fighter jet was to be the centrepiece of the programme.

However, US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said in July that his service had decided to “pause” its efforts to field a new stealth fighter under NGAD, citing budgetary constraints.

He said that while the US Air Force was still prioritising development of a crewed NGAD aircraft, there was “a chance it might be uncrewed”. He said the air force would revise the design to lower the cost and better integrate its drone wingmen, which would be developed under a separate initiative, the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) programme.

Speaking at a conference hosted by Defence News on September 6, US Air Force vice chief of staff Jim Slife said that the technology had advanced much faster than anticipated, and his service aimed to better integrate drone wingman technology with the NGAD initiative.

Salapasidis said that in the future, drones would “complement” manned aircraft fleets, expanding from their current role in intelligence gathering and land strikes.

“Several nations are pursuing, or are expected to pursue, this type of technology, including the US,” he said, citing the CCA programme.

“The fielding of these systems by the top defence spenders may provide tactical and strategic advantages significant enough to drive requirements at the global level,” he added.

“However, the pace at which these technologies will be fielded will be defined by the resources available to end users and the type and magnitude of geopolitical threats that each country has to counter.”