In an exclusive development regarding China’s rapidly accelerating next-generation air combat programs, we have just gotten our first glimpse of a very large, low-observable, flying-wing, long-endurance unmanned aircraft.
The image of the previously unseen aircraft sitting outside of an already intriguing hangar complex at an airfield notorious for advanced air combat programs comes to us from the Planet Labs archive. The image was taken on May 14, 2025, and just appeared in the database.
The photo shows China’s secretive test base near Malan in Xinjiang province, which is known to be on the leading edge of the country’s unmanned aircraft development efforts.
Specifically, the craft was parked outside of a sprawling new facility that was built very recently to the east of the base, connected to it by a very long taxiway leading to a security gate.PHOTO © 2025 PLANET LABS INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRINTED BY PERMISSION
Construction of the installation began just over two years ago. The high-security site is very densely populated with hangars of various sizes. These include estimated (based on early construction satellite images) 70-meter, 50-meter, 20-meter, and 15-meter bays. The craft in question is sitting outside one of the largest bays. The low-slung, large hangars are reminiscent of the shelters for U.S. B-2 bombers at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri or infrastructure we see at the U.S. Air Force’s Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, associated with flying-wing aircraft. The smaller bays at Malan are a bit more of a puzzle.PHOTO © 2025 PLANET LABS INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRINTED BY PERMISSION
It wasn’t previously apparent what this facility was intended to do, but now it seems clearer that it may be a testing base for China’s next generation air combat ecosystem, which would include aircraft of multiple sizes — from the H-20 stealth bomber, to large stealthy flying wing drones, the tri-engined J-36, to the J-XDS fighter, and of course, smaller tactical drones.
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