China’s GJ-21 stealth attack drone has taken off from and landed on the Sichuan, an amphibious assault ship of more than 40,000 tonnes that China launched in December 2024. The state news agency Xinhua announced the first flights on 30 October. The defence ministry called them a milestone on 6 November.
The GJ-21, also called Attack-21, is China’s first ship-based stealth drone built both to scout and to strike, Xinhua said. It is a tailless flying wing, first shown at the military parade in Beijing in September 2025. Xinhua called the test “a breakthrough” for China’s amphibious assault ship programme.
A ship built for drones
The Sichuan is the first of the Type 076 class. Assault ships usually fly helicopters and jump-jets. This one has an electromagnetic catapult and arresting gear, Reuters reported, so a conventional fixed-wing aircraft can launch from it and land on it.
Senior Colonel Chen Xi, the defence ministry’s spokesman, said the first take-off and landing was an important step in building new kinds of combat forces. He added that China’s defence policy is defensive.
What China has not said
The announcements give no date or place for the flights and no number of sorties. They do not say how many GJ-21s the Sichuan can carry, or when the drone will join the fleet.
State broadcaster CCTV said only that the Sichuan carried out a series of sea trials in late October, without saying where.
