China's new 'drone mothership' expected to launch within days
The unmanned "drone mothership," known as Jiu Tian or Nine Heavens, will be deployed by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) air force and aims to lay the groundwork to expand the reach of aerial combat.
When it is fully operational, Jiu Tian will release vast swarms of drones that would work together to overwhelm an enemy's air defence systems.
A video circulating on X shows a visualisation of Jiu Tian's capabilities and its ability to deploy several drones at the same time from both sides of its fuselage.
The jet-powered drone will first undergo a series of tests before it is fully deployed by the Chinese air force.
The super-high altitude Jiu Tian can carry up to six tonnes of ammunition and smaller drones, the UAV has a maximum range of 7,000 kilometres.
Jiu Tian is the latest addition to China's rapidly developing arsenal of advanced drone technology, with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) becoming increasingly critical on the modern battlefield.
The new Chinese "drone mothership" is being seen as a rival to established US models like the RQ-4 Global Hawk and the MQ-9 Reaper, according to an article published in the South China Morning Post.
Jiu Tian was designed by the state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China and constructed by Xi'an Chida Aircraft Parts Manufacturing.
The manufacturer says Jiu Tian's design allows the drone to carry out several different functions such as high-security transport, border defence and emergency rescue operations.
Its announcement comes as China seeks to ramp up its military capabilities, a military build-up that has been closely watched around the world, particularly following repeated threats to annex Taiwan.
China sees democratically-ruled Taiwan as a breakaway province that must be brought under mainland control, by force if necessary.
Marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te said, "Today, 80 years later, we share the same values and face similar challenges as many of the democracies that participated in the European war."
US President Donald Trump has said ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine will start "immediately" following a phone call Russia's leader Vladimir Putin.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he believed the call "went very well" and that "Russia wants to do largescale TRADE with the United States when this catastrophic 'bloodbath' is over."
"I have so informed President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, President Emmanuel Macron, of France, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, of Italy, Chancellor Friedrich Merz, of Germany, and President Alexander Stubb, of Finland, during a call with me, immediately after the call with President Putin. The Vatican, as represented by the Pope, has stated that it would be very interested in hosting the negotiations. Let the process begin!"
Before Trump's social media statement, Putin had released a statement saying a "ceasefire is possible if the right agreements are reached" but didn't explain what those agreements were.
He did say however that Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov or the head of Moscow's negotiating team, Vladimir Ushakov, would give more details later.
"Russia will propose and is ready to work with the Ukrainian side on a memorandum on a possible future peace agreement with the definition of a number of positions. Such as, for example, the principles of a solution, the timing of a possible peace agreement and so on, including a possible ceasefire for a certain period of time if appropriate agreements are reached," Putin said in a quote carried by the state-owned news agency TASS, which also reported the call with Trump lasted for more than two hours.
Russia has previously insisted on addressing what the Kremlin calls the "root causes" of its war, which includes Ukraine's aspirations to join both the EU and NATO.
According to Moscow, that also includes NATO's alleged violation of commitments not to expand eastwards, the Ukrainian government's alleged discrimination against ethnic Russians and what Putin calls the "denazification" of Ukraine.
Putin and Russia have failed to provide evidence for any of these allegations so far.
Commenting on the call earlier on Monday, the White House press secretary said Trump's goal was "to see a ceasefire."
Karoline Leavitt also admitted that the US president has "grown very frustrated with both sides" of the war.
"Nothing's going to happen until Putin and I together," the US president told reporters on 15 May, later adding "I think it's time for us to just do it."
US Vice President JD Vance also said on Monday that Trump intended to press Putin about whether he is genuinely interested in ending the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
"We realise there's a bit of an impasse here," Vance said, adding "And I think the president's going to say to President Putin: 'Look, are you serious? Are you real about this?'"
He said that he was not sure Putin has a strategy for ending the war, but added that Washington might walk away from trying to mediate any deal if no meaningful progress towards peace was made.
Although it was Putin himself who suggested directs talks between Russia and Ukraine, he didn't accept an invitation by Volodymyr Zelenskyy to talks in Istanbul last week, instead sending a lower-level delegation.
Ukraine's president met with his team earlier on Monday to "evaluate the outcome" of those talks, saying that Kyiv had done everything to bring a ceasefire closer and that Russia was the obstacle to peace.
"The meetings on May 15–16 demonstrated to the world our readiness to bring peace closer and, accordingly, the need to put pressure on Russia to end the war," Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.
He said that the most important outcome of the talks was an agreement to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war from each side. Preparations for that swap are underway by Ukraine's Security Service.
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