Yunying-25V Makes Its Debut at CCTV Spring Festival Gala: A Signal of AVIC's Tail-Sitter Drone Production Layout

A shot from the 2026 CCTV Spring Festival Gala is easily overlooked—a uniquely shaped white drone takes off vertically, its body in a "tail-sitter" posture, rising straight into the sky like a missile before quickly transitioning to horizontal flight. This VTOL drone, known as "Yunying-25V," was developed by the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC). Its debut on the globally popular Spring Festival Gala stage reveals signals worth noting.

Technical Benchmark: The Chinese Version of the American V-BAT

From the publicly available video, the Yunying-25V adopts a typical tail-sitter design—its body is positioned vertically for takeoff and landing, relying on a ducted fan for lift, and after takeoff, the body rotates 90 degrees to enter level flight. This configuration is not common worldwide, with the most mature model currently being the MQ-35A V-BAT from the American company Shield AI.

The technical parameters of the V-BAT can serve as a reference:

• Length: 3.8 meters, Wingspan: 2.9 meters, Total Weight: 73 kilograms
• Heavy fuel piston engine (JP5 fuel), Endurance: over 13 hours
• Ceiling: 5,500 meters, Maximum Speed: 90 kilometers/hour
• Electro-optical/mid-wave infrared camera, operational in GPS-denied environments
• Equipped with swarm coordination capabilities starting in 2023

The V-BAT has demonstrated its anti-electronic warfare capabilities on the battlefield in Ukraine and has been adopted by the U.S. Navy, Army, and Coast Guard. In January 2026, the Indian military made an emergency procurement, and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and the Royal Netherlands Navy have also placed orders. The global deployment speed of this model somewhat proves the tactical reconnaissance value of the tail-sitter VTOL design.

It is not surprising that foreign media refer to the Yunying-25V as a "V-BAT clone." From a technical perspective, the tail-sitter VTOL is not a new concept—America experimented with tail-sitter fighter jets like the XFY-1 and XFV-1 in the 1950s, but due to limitations in attitude control technology, it did not truly mature until the era of drones. AVIC's choice of this path indicates they believe this design has sufficient advantages in specific scenarios.

AVIC's Product Line Layout: From Yunying to Yunying-25V

It is worth noting that the name "Yunying" has appeared in AVIC's drone product line before. As early as the 2010s, the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC, not to be confused with AVIC) launched the jet-powered "Yunying" (Cloud Shadow) reconnaissance-strike drone—capable of operating at an altitude of 13,500 meters and a speed of 320 knots, it is a medium-altitude long-endurance platform, similar in positioning to the U.S. MQ-9 Reaper.

This time, AVIC Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group named the tail-sitter drone "Yunying-25V," which may have two interpretations: one is that AVIC internally uses "Yunying" as a general drone brand (similar to the "Wing Loong" series), with 25V representing the 2025 model or the 25th improved version; the other is that this model has some technical inheritance from the earlier jet-powered Yunying. There is little public information on this point, so it can only be speculated.

However, it is certain that AVIC's current product coverage in the drone field is already very comprehensive:

• Reconnaissance-strike: Mature export models like Wing Loong-2, Rainbow-4/5
• Stealth attack: The GJ-11 (Attack-11) carrier-based unmanned attack aircraft
• Swarm mother ship: Jetank heavy drone (endurance of 12 hours, range of 7,000 kilometers, capable of deploying small drone swarms)
• Vertical takeoff and landing: Yunying-25V (filling the tactical reconnaissance gap)

From a product line perspective, the Yunying-25V fills a relatively vacant area—small, low-altitude, vertical takeoff and landing tactical platforms. The core advantage of such drones is not range or payload, but deployment flexibility.

Tactical Value: Dual Demand for Reefs and Shipborne Operations

The biggest selling point of tail-sitter VTOL drones is their extremely low requirements for takeoff and landing sites. The V-BAT can take off and land on a platform of 3 meters by 3 meters—this means it can be deployed on:

• Helipads or decks on South China Sea reefs
• Small platforms like Type 056 frigates and Type 726 air-cushion landing craft
• Temporarily cleared areas in mountainous or dense forest regions
• Rooftops or squares in urban environments

For the People's Liberation Army (PLA), this capability is particularly important in two scenarios:

Surveillance of South China Sea Reefs: Although reefs like Mischief Reef and Subi Reef have airports, runway capacity is limited. Deploying small VTOL drones like the Yunying-25V can provide continuous low-altitude surveillance coverage without occupying runway resources. An endurance of 13 hours means that only 2-3 rotations per day are needed to achieve 24-hour monitoring.

Amphibious Landing Support: The Type 071 dock landing ship and Type 075 amphibious assault ship have helicopter decks, but the number of helicopters is limited and must perform transport tasks. Carrying several Yunying-25Vs can provide real-time reconnaissance during the landing phase without occupying aircraft resources. This is particularly critical in high-intensity scenarios like a Taiwan Strait landing operation.

The U.S. Marine Corps' deployment experience with the V-BAT in expeditionary forces is worth referencing. Since 2021, the V-BAT has been following the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (11th MEU) on the USS Portland amphibious ship, validating the shipborne feasibility of small VTOL drones. The PLA is clearly also paying attention to this direction.

Production Capacity Estimation: The Logic Behind the CCTV Spring Festival Gala Display

Returning to the initial question: Why showcase it at the Spring Festival Gala?

As a display platform, the political significance of the Spring Festival Gala far outweighs technical promotion. In recent years, military equipment that has appeared on the Spring Festival Gala (such as the J-20 and DF-17) has usually completed its finalization and possesses initial combat capabilities. The appearance of the Yunying-25V likely indicates that this model has passed the technical verification stage and is currently or will soon enter small-scale production.

Referring to the production rhythm of the V-BAT: Shield AI announced in 2024 a partnership with Palantir to deploy the "Warp Speed" manufacturing system, aiming for rapid scale-up. Between 2024 and 2026, V-BAT orders include a $198 million contract from the U.S. Coast Guard (the largest single contract to date), a $90 million technology transfer contract from India's JSW Group (including establishing a factory in India), and orders from multiple countries including the Netherlands, Japan, and Indonesia. This speed of scale-up reflects the strong demand from the U.S. military for small VTOL drones.

As a large state-owned military industrial group, AVIC's capacity mobilization ability far exceeds that of startup companies like Shield AI. If the Yunying-25V has indeed entered the preparation stage for mass production, it can be reasonably speculated:

• The first batch of orders may come from the Marine Corps or the Southern Theater Command
• Annual production capacity may be in the range of 50-100 units (referencing the production rhythm of mature models like the Wing Loong-2)
• Export versions may be launched in 2026-2027 (the "Yunying" series has always been a focus for AVIC's exports)

In simple terms, the Spring Festival Gala display is likely a prelude to an "official announcement"—to let the public (including potential foreign trade customers) know "we also have this now."

An Unsolved Mystery

What is truly worth noting is not the Yunying-25V itself, but why AVIC waited until 2026 to launch this product.

The technical threshold for tail-sitter VTOL is not particularly high—the core lies in attitude control algorithms and ducted fan design, both of which China has a solid foundation in through civil multirotor drones (like DJI) and military helicopters. Shield AI completed the V-BAT prototype as early as the early 2010s and deployed it with the Marine Corps in 2021. Why did AVIC take so long?

One possible explanation is that the PLA previously did not consider such small VTOL platforms to have sufficient tactical value—reconnaissance-strike missions could be handled by Wing Loong/Rainbow, shipborne reconnaissance by helicopters, and reef surveillance by fixed-wing long-endurance platforms. However, experiences from the battlefield in Ukraine have changed this perception: small, low-cost, easily deployable unmanned platforms often have better survivability in complex environments than large precision equipment.

Another possibility is supply chain readiness. If the Yunying-25V is to be deployed in bulk, a complete maintenance and support system needs to be established—subsystems like heavy fuel engines, electro-optical pods, data links, and ground control stations all need to be domestically sourced. AVIC may have spent several years establishing this supply chain rather than simply focusing on the aircraft itself.

Regardless, the emergence of the Yunying-25V marks another piece of the puzzle in the PLA's unmanned equipment system. As for how many can be produced, where they will be deployed, and whether they will be exported—the answers may not be revealed until this year's Zhuhai Airshow.