China shows the GJ-11 stealth drone's internal weapon bay in new state TV footage

China's state broadcaster has released new close-up footage of the GJ-11 stealth combat drone, giving the public its first detailed view of the aircraft's internal weapon bay. The images appeared on Monday, 9 November, in a CCTV report counting down to the 77th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army Air Force on Wednesday, according to the South China Morning Post.

Lianhe Zaobao reported that the clip, published by CCTV's military channel, runs for 26 seconds. It shows the drone parked, rolling out of a hangar, taking off and flying, with close views of the wings, the surface of the fuselage and the landing gear. The air force also made public a codename for the aircraft, Xuanlong. A Chinese commentary cited by the Taiwanese daily China Times said the first character refers to something deep, dark and hard to see, which it linked to the drone's stealth design.

The Post said the footage offered the first close look at the GJ-11's large internal weapon bay, which has serrated edges. In the paper's assessment, that design suggests the drone can carry relatively large missiles while keeping its stealth characteristics. South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that the video showed the aircraft from the front, the side and the rear, with its air intake mounted on top of the fuselage and a flattened rear section, and no vertical tail.

Chinese state media made several claims about the drone alongside the footage. According to those claims, all of its weapons are carried inside the belly bay, which can hold several types of precision air-to-surface munitions, and the aircraft combines good stealth, long endurance and high strike accuracy. State media also claimed that the GJ-11 can carry out air strikes and suppress enemy air defences. None of these performance claims has been independently verified.

The GJ-11 is not new. Lianhe Zaobao noted that the Chinese military announced in November last year that the drone had entered service, and released a promotional film that showed it flying in formation with J-20 fighters. The commentary cited by China Times said the aircraft first appeared in public at the National Day military parade in Beijing in 2019.

Little about the aircraft's performance has been confirmed. Publicly available data cited by Lianhe Zaobao say the drone was designed by the Shenyang Aircraft Design Institute of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China and built by Hongdu, with a wingspan of 14 metres, a payload of about two tonnes, a top speed of Mach 0.9, an endurance of more than six hours and a combat radius of up to 2,000 kilometres. China Times stressed that third-party estimates of the drone's size, weight, range and radar signature are not official figures.

The same commentary described the GJ-11 as a forward partner for crewed jets. In its account, the rear-seat operator of the two-seat J-20S fighter could direct several of the drones ahead of the formation to scout, to act as decoys or to release weapons, while the crewed aircraft stays in a safer position. It also tied the codename announcement to the recent landings of the GJ-21, which it regarded as a carrier-based version of the same flying-wing design, on the Type 076 amphibious assault ship Sichuan.

For Taiwan, the missions that state media assigned to the drone, penetrating and suppressing air defences and striking ground targets, are the ones that would be aimed at the island's own air defence network early in a conflict. The reports did not say how many GJ-11s are in service or where they are based, and the footage itself does not show the drone carrying or releasing a weapon.