China boasts about 'drone mothership' but gets ridiculed over design flaw
China has released a chilling new "drone mothership" that can deploy more than 100 drones and missiles - but its design has been ridiculed by experts. The weapons aircraft can fly for a staggering 12 hours, has an 82-foot wingspan, and can launch 100 kamikaze UAVs in seconds.
Beijing revealed the drone mothership is currently undergoing its final installation and testing after the fourth prototype had just completed its structural assembly. Dubbed Ji Tun, meaning Sky High, the aircraft is expected to take to the skies next month as Beijing looks to increase air defences. Despite being first paraded at China's largest aviation event back in November, its latest version has been ridiculed over its many design flaws.
Although the aircraft can carry up to six tonnes of ammunition, surveillance technology, and boasts a staggering range of over 4,350 miles, experts believe it stands no chance against more advanced systems seen in the US, Europe, and other parts of Asia.
“I’m not a fighter pilot, but this is like trying to sneak into near-peer enemy airspace w/ a formation of KC-10s,” a retired US Air Force pilot wrote on X upon seeing the model for the Jiu Tian. “It’s not remotely survivable…a gigantic missile magnet. This is just classic propaganda”
Another X user chimed in: “The Jiutian SS-UAV is a giant prop piece for propaganda, nothing more. In any contested airspace[,] especially one guarded by an Integrated Air Defense System (IADS), this thing wouldn’t make it past the outer ring.” A third person wrote: “OK got it Big, Slow, and not Stealthy.”
It comes as Donald Trump revealed a Golden Dome missile defence program that will put US weapons in space for the first time.
Trump said the system, which costs an eye-watering $175billion, will be “fully operational before the end of my term,” which ends in 2029, and have the capability of intercepting missiles “even if they are launched from space.”
Trump, seated next to a poster showing the continental US painted gold and with artistic depictions of missile interceptions, also announced that Gen. Michael Guetlein, who currently serves as the vice chief of space operations, will be responsible for overseeing Golden Dome’s progress.
Golden Dome is envisioned to include ground and space-based capabilities that are able to detect and stop missiles at all four major stages of a potential attack: detecting and destroying them before a launch, intercepting them in their earliest stage of flight, stopping them midcourse in the air, or halting them in the final minutes as they descend toward a target.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated this month that just the space-based components of the Golden Dome could cost as much as $542 billion over the next 20 years. Trump has requested an initial $25 billion for the program in his proposed tax break bill now moving through Congress.
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