China Central Television (CCTV) has released new footage of the GJ-11 stealth drone and reported that two air force operators helped score a first-attempt hit during what it called the aircraft’s first live-fire strike mission.
CCTV said Shi Xiaoran and Fu Ting, members of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force’s (PLAAF) first group of female drone operators, worked with their unit to hit a target on the first attempt. CCTV’s account has not been independently verified. Shi said, in an English translation of CCTV’s Chinese transcript, “After circling once more, I finally found the target, launched successfully and hit it.” CCTV did not identify the mission’s date or location, its target or the weapon used.
The Global Times, citing CCTV, said conversion training for the two operators took five months. CCTV described command-cabin instruction that often exceeded six hours, while some exercises continued for several days.
Yonhap News Agency said the video showed a top-facing air inlet and a flattened rear profile, alongside the drone’s tailless wing configuration. CCTV said the GJ-11 carries different air-to-surface munitions inside a belly bay. Taiwan Defence noted that the footage showed neither a weapon aboard the aircraft nor a release.
Military affairs expert Song Zhongping told the Global Times that the exhaust nozzle had been treated to aid stealth and that radar-absorbing coatings reduce the aircraft’s radar cross-section. The reports provided no measurements of those effects.
CCTV said unmanned aircraft could take on high-risk ground-strike missions and potentially reduce losses of personnel and equipment, without quantifying the effect. At Airshow China in 2021, Global Times reporters described an Aviation Industry Corporation of China scale model with two open bays, each displaying four items that appeared to be guided glide bombs. That display alone does not confirm the operational aircraft’s loadout. The Global Times said commentators were watching for a possible GJ-11 showing at the upcoming 16th Airshow China, though its participation had not been confirmed.
