The aircraft are expected to have futuristic systems for self-flying and large-scale drone wingman squads
5-MIN READ5-MINChao Kongin BeijingPublished: 2:58pm, 10 Sep 2026China’s next-generation combat aircraft will be able to fly by themselves if a pilot loses consciousness, navigate without satellite signals and operate in self-reorganising large drone formations.That is the plan laid out by researchers from the Shenyang Aircraft Design & Research Institute, a top Chinese military aircraft design organisation, in a paper last month.
The lead researcher is chief flight-control designer Zhang Dong at the institute, and his team’s paper – rare for its public details – was published in a peer-reviewed journal Aircraft Design in August.
China’s next-generation stealth fighter programmes were undergoing a “leapfrog transformation from being able to fly steadily to being able to win in combat”, wrote Zhang and his colleagues.
Zhang’s study presents a future of pilots handing over control during periods of extreme workload or incapacitation, quantum navigation technologies supporting operations in satellite-denied environments and crewed fighters coordinating attack, reconnaissance and protection missions with reconfigurable wingman drones.
