China's first shipborne stealth reconnaissance-strike integrated drone completes first takeoff and landing on amphibious assault ship

Source-stated date: 30 October 2026 · China Military Online (EN)

Record history

Published30 October 2026, by CMC Political Work Department
Collected2026-10-30 18:44:45 UTC, run 190
Machine readingAnalyzed
AnalysisNot in a published issue's source trail

Summary

Machine summary

The GJ-21, China's first shipborne stealth reconnaissance-strike drone, completed its first arrested takeoff and landing aboard the Type 076 amphibious assault ship Sichuan (hull 51) during sea trials that began in November 2025, confirming the ship's electromagnetic catapult and arrestor systems are operationally functional with fixed-wing unmanned aircraft. This documents the PLA Navy's acquisition of a carrier-based stealth strike-ISR capability on a platform that displaces over 40,000 tonnes and is distinct from its carrier fleet — a combination that extends fixed-wing unmanned strike reach to amphibious task forces. What remains unknown is the GJ-21's payload capacity, sensor suite, and whether the Sichuan will deploy with an organic GJ-21 detachment or carry the aircraft only in specific contingencies.

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BEIJING, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- China's first shipborne stealth reconnaissance-strike integrated drone GJ-21 has recently completed its first takeoff and landing operation aboard the Sichuan, China's first Type 076 amphibious assault ship, a navy source said. This represents yet another breakthrough made by China in the development of amphibious assault ships and marks that the Chinese Navy has acquired the capability to operate fixed-wing stealth drones from large maritime combat platforms, the navy source noted. The Sichuan, hull number 51, is the first Type 076 amphibious assault ship designed and built independently by China. It was launched on Dec. 27, 2024, and is named after southwest China's Sichuan Province. The Sichuan has a full-load displacement of over 40,000 tonnes and features a dual-island superstructure along with a full-length flight deck. The vessel features the innovative application of automated landing guidance system, integrated electric power system, and electromagnetic catapult and arrestor technologies. It is designed to carry fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles, helicopters and amphibious equipment. Since beginning its first sea trials in November 2025, the Sichuan has steadily conducted various maritime tests as planned, successfully completing the debugging of various equipment and overall operational stability testing, the source said.

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Provenance

What is known about this record and where each part came from.
Desk	China Desk
Publishing institution	CMC Political Work Department
Source outlet	China Military Online (EN) (china_mil_online)
Source language	en — an attribute of the source, not of this record
Source-stated publication date	2026-10-30
Original URL	http://eng.chinamil.com.cn/2025xb/H_251454/L_251456/16497203.html
Collected at	2026-10-30 18:44:45 — collection metadata, not a publication time
Content fingerprint	257887be9c0a661d273f75418dbeda514640f3e436e565f23cdac30bb79d9516 — taken when the record was captured, over the stored original title and text
Collection run	190
Analysis model	claude-sonnet-4-6
Prompt version	v1

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Source record This item was published at the URL above on the date the source stated.
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Source text. CMC Political Work Department. "China's first shipborne stealth reconnaissance-strike integrated drone completes first takeoff, landing on amphibious assault ship." China Military Online (EN), 2026-10-30. http://eng.chinamil.com.cn/2025xb/H_251454/L_251456/16497203.html.

As held. Indo-Pacific Record, Research Atlas corpus, Record 5837, Snapshot — 2026-10-30 (1,474 records).

Processing note. The summary held for this record is machine-generated; human review is not recorded. The headline is an English-language original.

The record number and this record path are locators inside the 2026-10-30 snapshot. Neither is a DOI, accession number, permanent identifier, public permalink, or published route. See identifiers and citation guidance.

30 October 2026 Friday Source-stated publication date

CMC Political Work Department
via China Military Online (EN)