Guermantes Lailari, Yu-cheng Chen, and Tin Pak
The Jiutian (九天) unmanned aerial system (UAS), the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) newest drone, made its first flight in December 2025. Capable of carrying a 6,000-kilogram payload, it was tested releasing 100 smaller loitering drones (Xinhua; CCTV, December 11, 2025). Akin to the rest of the PLA’s drone fleet, however, it remains to be seen whether it can withstand electromagnetic pulses (EMP) to counter it.
EMP weapons deliver pulses of radiation that induce electrical charges in conductive materials, which can disable or destroy electronic systems. While EMPs can be produced via nuclear or non-nuclear methods, non-nuclear EMPs are more targeted, with a narrower range, and focus on specific frequency bands. A recent article in PLA Daily notes that EMP weapons are rapidly moving from theory to reality, citing recent tests of prototype microwave-based counter-UAS systems and overseas trials that disabled large drone groups (PLA Daily, November 28, 2025). The article underscores the importance of EMP weapons as a speed-of-light, non-kinetic “electronics-kill” (以电能为主要“弹药”) option that can scale against drone swarms and other electronics-dependent targets. As the People’s Republic of China (PRC) continues to electrify its civilian infrastructure, and the PLA continues to “informatize” (信息化) its operations, vulnerabilities to EMPs continue to grow (PLA Daily, May 2, 2024).
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