As part of the Zhuhai Air Show (in Guangdong Province), AVIC unveiled a new large drone “mothership”. It is an aircraft in the roughly 10-ton category, named JIU TIAN, with a high-wing design, minimal or no sweep angle, winglets at the ends, H-tail, and an engine mounted above the centerline of the fuselage. An electro-optical turret is installed under the nose, while the drone also has a forward-facing radome, which presumably houses a radar.

By far the most interesting feature, however, is the modular bay in the center section of the fuselage, which seems intended for launching smaller drones in swarm formation. After all, China's interest in swarm capabilities and their deployment from various systems, including high-altitude balloons, is not new. For military purposes, swarms offer many inherent advantages, such as the ability to spread rapidly over a wide area to perform various missions depending on the configuration: ISR, electronic warfare, kinetic attack, etc. Thus, within the same swarm, drones equipped with different payloads can operate, allowing the swarm a multi-mission capability and, most importantly, the ability to multiply dilemmas for the adversary and overload their defenses.

In a hypothetical scenario of warfare in the Taiwan Strait between the United States and China, we could witness, in this regard, the largest clash of drones in history, with thousands upon thousands being used by both sides.

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