Aircraft Museum · Drone · Wing Loong II

CAIG Wing Loong II
and Wing Loong I

China’s best-selling armed drone family, the Wing Loong has flown strikes for the UAE, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and others in Libya, Yemen, Sinai and beyond, often far from public scrutiny.

2017First flight (Wing Loong II)

13Countries buying Wing Loongs, 2008–18 (CSIS)

480 kgExternal payload

32 hEndurance

Photo: Vitaly V. Kuzmin / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

RoleMedium-altitude long-endurance armed reconnaissance droneEra2009 to present (Wing Loong I); 2017 to present (Wing Loong II)EngineWing Loong II: 1 × turboprop; Wing Loong I: 1 × 100 hp turbocharged piston engineOriginChina · Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute, AVICStatusIn serviceWant to fly a real military jet?

The Story

The Wing Loong II: how China became an exporter of armed drones

Seen from below, the Wing Loong looks so much like an American Predator or Reaper that it is often called the Chinese Predator: a bulbous nose for the satellite antenna, a long straight wing, a V-tail and a pusher propeller. It was developed by the Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute, part of the state-owned aviation group AVIC, which began work in 2005. The first Wing Loong I flew in 2009 and entered service in 2011, a 1.1-tonne aircraft with a 100 hp engine and two weapon stations. Its larger successor, the Wing Loong II, was unveiled in 2015 and flew in February 2017: a 4.2-tonne turboprop with six weapon stations, 480 kg of external stores and an endurance of up to 32 hours.

What made the Wing Loong important was not technology but availability. The United States sold its armed drones to very few countries, and only under strict conditions. China sold the Wing Loong to the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Algeria, Morocco and others. CSIS counted about 96 Wing Loongs sold to 13 countries between 2008 and 2018, more than half of China’s drone exports, and estimated the Wing Loong II at about US$1–2 million each. The UAE was the launch customer for the Wing Loong II in 2017, Pakistan agreed in 2018 to co-produce 48, and China’s own air force took it into service in 2018 as the GJ-2.

The record that followed is a hard one to read. In Libya, UAE-operated Wing Loongs flew for General Khalifa Haftar’s forces in breach of a UN arms embargo, fought a drone war against Turkish TB2s and, in January 2020, killed 26 unarmed cadets at a military academy in Tripoli. A UAE-operated drone killed a senior Houthi leader in Yemen in 2018, and Egypt used Wing Loongs in North Sinai. Several have been shot down. The same airframe has also relayed mobile telephone signals over flooded Chinese cities. This page sets out the facts as they are known, sober about how much remains undisclosed. Most operators publish nothing about their sorties, and much of the record comes from wreckage, investigations and UN reports.

It looks like an American Reaper. It sold because it was not one: cheaper, quicker to deliver and with fewer conditions attached.The Chinese Predator — China’s export drone

01The Wing Loong II in Libya: a proxy drone war

Libya became the place where the Wing Loong was used most intensively. Air & Cosmos reported that the UAE deployed Wing Loongs to el-Khadim air base in eastern Libya in June 2016, alongside light attack aircraft and helicopters, in support of Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army. In late 2016 UAE aircraft flew most of the air strikes in the region. A UN Panel of Experts report in 2019 documented the presence of Wing Loong IIs in Libya in violation of the arms embargo.

When Haftar launched his offensive on Tripoli in April 2019, the internationally recognised Government of National Accord received Turkish Bayraktar TB2s, and the two sides’ foreign-supplied drones fought for months over the city. The South China Morning Post reported analysts’ view that Haftar’s Chinese drones, provided by the UAE, were his answer to Turkey’s. The Wing Loong II’s satellite link gave it reach beyond the TB2’s line-of-sight radius, and it carried Chinese Blue Arrow 7 anti-tank missiles. Losses were heavy on both sides; several Wing Loongs were shot down over Misrata and elsewhere in 2019 and 2020. The deadliest single incident came in January 2020, when a strike on a military academy in Tripoli killed 26 cadets; a BBC investigation later attributed it to a UAE-operated Wing Loong II.

02The Wing Loong in Yemen, Sinai and beyond

In Yemen, the UAE and Saudi Arabia operated Wing Loongs as part of the coalition against the Houthis. In April 2018 a UAE drone strike, using a Chinese Blue Arrow 7 missile, killed Saleh al-Samad, president of the Houthis’ Supreme Political Council and the most senior Houthi figure killed in the war to that point, Foreign Policy reported. The Houthis in turn claimed several Wing Loongs shot down over Saada and other areas.

In Egypt the Wing Loong was officially inducted in 2018, and the Egyptian Air Force used it in strikes on militants in El Arish, Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid in North Sinai in March 2017. Later users have flown it against Boko Haram in Nigeria, against militants in Somalia, and, in Pakistan’s case, in strikes inside Iran in January 2024. In April 2026, during the war involving Iran, wreckage that open-source analysts identified as a Wing Loong II was found near Shiraz; who operated it has not been confirmed.

Design & Engineering

What makes the Wing Loong II special

A Reaper-class airframe

The Wing Loong II has an 11 m fuselage, a 20.5 m wing and a maximum take-off weight of 4.2 tonnes, close to the American MQ-9 in layout and size, with a V-tail and a three-bladed pusher propeller. Army Recognition and Chinese sources give a maximum speed of 370 km/h, a ceiling of 9,900 m, an operational radius of 1,500 km and up to 32 hours in the air, though endurance falls sharply with a full weapons load: Chinese figures give about 20 hours at maximum speed.

Six weapon stations

The Wing Loong II has three hard points under each wing, against two on the first Wing Loong, and can carry up to 480 kg of external stores, typically up to twelve laser-guided bombs or missiles. The most widely reported weapon is the Blue Arrow 7 anti-tank missile, alongside small guided bombs. An electro-optical turret with day and infrared cameras and a laser designator sits under the nose, and synthetic aperture radar can be fitted. Weapons and sensors are of Chinese origin, so no American export approval is needed.

Satellite reach

Like the American drones it resembles, the Wing Loong II has a satellite communications antenna in its bulged nose, which lets crews control it far beyond the range of a line-of-sight data link, quoted at about 150 km. RUSI’s Drones Project gives a range of more than 1,000 km with satellite communications. In Libya that let operators fly from bases far from the front, a practical advantage over the line-of-sight TB2. The same link can also carry video to commanders far from the ground station.

03The Wing Loong family: I, ID, II and 2H

The Wing Loong I (also called Pterodactyl I) has a 14 m wing, a 9.05 m length, a maximum take-off weight of 1,100 kg and a 100 hp turbocharged engine, giving more than 20 hours of endurance and a ceiling of about 5,000 m, with two hard points for 200 kg of stores. The Wing Loong ID is an improved, all-composite version with a longer wing and double the payload; Egypt announced plans to buy 32 in 2018.

The Wing Loong II is a new, larger turboprop design. Chinese service versions are designated GJ-2. The Wing Loong 2H is a civil emergency version: in July 2021, during the floods in Henan province, China’s Ministry of Emergency Management sent one to restore mobile telephone coverage over areas where networks had failed, flying for about six hours as an airborne relay. A much larger successor, the Wing Loong 3, was shown in 2022.

Technical Data

CAIG Wing Loong II specifications

Specifications

Crew: None on board; flown from a ground control station
Length: 11 m (36 ft 1 in)
Wingspan: 20.5 m (67 ft 3 in)
Height: 4.1 m (13 ft 5 in)
Max take-off weight: 4,200 kg (9,260 lb)
Payload: 480 kg (1,060 lb) external on six hard points
Powerplant: 1 × turboprop with three-bladed pusher propeller
Maximum speed: 370 km/h (200 kt)
Endurance: Up to 32 hours
Service ceiling: 9,900 m (32,500 ft)
Range: about 1,500 km operational radius; data link about 150 km line of sight, more than 1,000 km via satellite
Armament: Up to 12 laser-guided bombs or missiles, including Blue Arrow 7 anti-tank missiles

Costs & production

Unit cost: CSIS estimated US$1–2 million per Wing Loong II; the Wing Loong I was commonly put at about US$1 million; both figures are estimates and exclude ground stations and support
Cost per flight hour: Hedged estimate: in the order of US$1,000–3,000, based on a single small turboprop, satellite link time and a ground crew; no official figure is published
Production: About 96 Wing Loongs sold to 13 countries in 2008–18 (CSIS); the 50th Wing Loong II was reported delivered in December 2020
Programme: Wing Loong I first flight 2009; Wing Loong II first flight February 2017; PLAAF service 2018

04The Wing Loong II’s operators

China: People’s Liberation Army Air Force, as GJ-2, from 2018; Wing Loong 2H for the Ministry of Emergency Management.
United Arab Emirates: launch customer in 2017; aircraft used in Libya and Yemen.
Saudi Arabia: Wing Loong purchases and a reported licence for local production.
Pakistan: 48 to be co-produced, announced 2018.
Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Nigeria and others in Africa and Asia; the Libyan National Army received aircraft from the UAE.
Wing Loong I users include the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Serbia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Indonesia and Uzbekistan.

05The Wing Loong II’s operating costs: a cheaper way in

Price was the Wing Loong’s main selling point. CSIS estimated the Wing Loong II at US$1–2 million each, compared with about US$4 million for a Predator, though such figures are rough and exclude ground stations, satellite services, training and weapons. Armada International noted that lower cost and fewer political conditions were advantages in the Gulf and Africa.

Running costs follow from a single turboprop of modest power and a small ground crew. Satellite airtime and sensor maintenance are the main extras. No official per-hour figure has been published; the estimate in the cost table is an order of magnitude only.

Timeline

The Wing Loong from first flight to the Gulf

2009

Wing Loong I flies

The first Wing Loong makes its first flight, four years after development began.

2011

Into service and export

The Wing Loong I enters service; the UAE becomes an early customer.

2015

Wing Loong II unveiled

The larger turboprop design is shown at the Aviation Expo China in Beijing in September.

2016

Libya

The UAE deploys Wing Loongs to el-Khadim air base in eastern Libya in June.

2017

First flight and Sinai

The Wing Loong II flies in February; Egyptian Wing Loongs strike militants in North Sinai in March.

2018

Yemen, Pakistan, PLAAF

A UAE drone kills Houthi leader Saleh al-Samad in April; Pakistan agrees to co-produce 48; the PLAAF takes the GJ-2 into service.

2019

Drone war over Tripoli

UAE-operated Wing Loong IIs fly for Haftar against Turkish-supplied TB2s.

2020

Tripoli military academy

A January strike kills 26 cadets in Tripoli; the 50th Wing Loong II is reportedly delivered in December.

2021

Henan floods

A Wing Loong 2H restores mobile coverage over flooded areas in July.

2024

Seized in Italy

In June Italian authorities seize Wing Loong parts disguised as wind turbine components bound for eastern Libya.

2026

Down near Shiraz

Wreckage identified by analysts as a Wing Loong II is found near Shiraz in Iran on 2 April.

Stories & Eyewitnesses

Stories & eyewitnesses: the Wing Loong at war

Record

First flight and a big order

The Wing Loong II flew in February 2017 with a buyer already signed.

Read the full story

AVIC flew the Wing Loong II for the first time at the end of February 2017; GlobalSecurity gives the date as 27 February and the duration as 31 minutes. Aviation International News, quoting Xinhua, reported that an unnamed customer had placed a large order to coincide with the first flight. Later that year the UAE was revealed as the launch customer. Few military aircraft have moved from first flight to export service so quickly, a sign of how far the design drew on the first Wing Loong and how strong demand was.

Combat

Over North Sinai, March 2017

Egypt used Wing Loongs against militants in its own territory.

Read the full story

In March 2017 the Egyptian Air Force carried out strikes on militants in El Arish, Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid in North Sinai, in the long campaign against the local Islamic State affiliate. Arabian Aerospace reported that Wing Loongs were used, and that they also helped search for smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Sinai. Egypt officially confirmed the Wing Loong’s induction into air force service in 2018, and announced plans to buy 32 improved Wing Loong IDs. Independent verification of results in Sinai, a closed military zone, was not possible.

Combat

The strike on Saleh al-Samad

In April 2018 a drone killed the Houthis’ political leader.

Read the full story

In April 2018 the Houthis announced that Saleh al-Samad, president of their Supreme Political Council, had been killed in an air strike. Foreign Policy reported that the strike was carried out by a UAE-operated Chinese drone firing a Blue Arrow 7 missile, and described it as the first successful killing of a senior figure in the Houthi movement. It came in a week when several Houthi commanders were killed in air strikes, and it showed how a Gulf state could now carry out targeted killings of its own, once largely an American practice.

Combat

Drones against drones over Tripoli

Libya became a war between Chinese and Turkish drones.

Read the full story

From mid-2019 the skies over Tripoli and Misrata were contested largely by drones. The Government of National Accord flew Turkish Bayraktar TB2s; Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army relied on Wing Loongs supplied and, according to many reports, flown by the UAE. On 30 June 2019 a photograph appeared online showing a Wing Loong II over Tripoli. Both sides struck each other’s airfields, ground stations and drones. GlobalSecurity cites figures of about eight Chinese-built drones and 17 TB2s lost in the first half of 2020 alone, numbers that remain approximate.

Loss

Twenty-six cadets

The deadliest Wing Loong strike killed unarmed students.

Read the full story

In January 2020 a missile struck a military academy in Tripoli, killing 26 unarmed cadets, the deadliest single strike attributed to a Wing Loong. A later BBC Africa Eye and BBC Arabic investigation concluded that a UAE-operated Wing Loong II, flying from al-Khadim air base, had fired a Chinese Blue Arrow 7 missile. The War Zone noted that UAE support for Haftar’s drone operations reportedly diminished afterwards. The strike became the best-known example of how hard it is to establish accountability when one state’s drones fly in another country’s civil war.

Rescue

A flying phone mast over Henan

In 2021 a Wing Loong restored mobile coverage after floods.

Read the full story

In July 2021 devastating floods in Henan province cut mobile telephone networks in several areas. China’s Ministry of Emergency Management dispatched a Wing Loong 2H, an unarmed emergency version, which flew for about six hours over the affected areas as an airborne base station, relaying calls and data for people cut off on the ground, and carrying out reconnaissance. It was a rare example of the type being used in a role that had nothing to do with war. The aircraft also carried out ground reconnaissance of the flooded areas.

People

Disguised as wind turbines

In 2024 Italy intercepted drones bound for eastern Libya.

Read the full story

On 18 June 2024 Italian authorities impounded containers at the port of Gioia Tauro unloaded from a cargo ship arriving from China. Inside, according to The War Zone citing The Times, were disassembled Wing Loong drones and control stations, wrapped and labelled as wind turbine parts. Further containers were seized days later. Investigators believed they were destined for Haftar’s forces in eastern Libya, apparently paid for with oil, in breach of the UN arms embargo that has applied to Libya since 2011.

Loss

Wreckage near Shiraz

In April 2026 Iran claimed a Reaper; analysts saw a Wing Loong.

Read the full story

On 2 April 2026, during the war involving Iran, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard announced that it had shot down an American MQ-9 Reaper over Shiraz. Open-source analysts quickly disputed this: the wreckage lacked the Reaper’s tail arrangement and had different proportions, matching a Chinese-built Wing Loong II. Defence Security Asia reported that ownership, Saudi or Emirati, could not be established without serial numbers or avionics, and that Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and Washington had neither confirmed nor denied it. The outlet described the episode as the first known Gulf drone operation inside Iran.

Gallery

The Wing Loong II in pictures

Operations

Where the Wing Loong II flies and flew

Service Record

The Wing Loong II’s record

Wing Loongs have been used in combat in Libya, Yemen, North Sinai, Nigeria, Somalia and, by Pakistan, against targets in Iran in 2024. Operators rarely publish details, and much of what is known comes from wreckage, investigations and UN reports. Losses have been significant wherever opponents had air defences.

26Cadets killed in the Tripoli academy strike, 2020

96Wing Loongs sold 2008–18 (CSIS)

48Wing Loong IIs for Pakistani co-production

See how training and combat types compare in the military aircraft statistics database. Figures are approximate.

Questions & Answers

Everything people ask about the Wing Loong II

Can I fly in a CAIG Wing Loong II?

No. The Wing Loong II is uncrewed and has no cockpit, so nobody flies in it. MiGFlug does not offer it, but you can fly several genuine military jets today, from the L-39 Albatros to the MiG-21, see MiGFlug’s jet flights.

Is the Wing Loong a copy of the Predator?

It closely resembles the American Predator and Reaper in layout, which earned it the nickname Chinese Predator, but it is a Chinese design developed by the Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute.

Which countries use the Wing Loong II?

China, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and Nigeria are among the reported users; the UAE supplied aircraft to Haftar’s forces in Libya.

How much does a Wing Loong II cost?

CSIS estimated about US$1–2 million per aircraft, far less than American equivalents, though system prices with ground stations and weapons are higher.

What is the difference between the Wing Loong I and II?

The Wing Loong I is a 1.1-tonne piston-engined drone with two weapon stations; the Wing Loong II is a 4.2-tonne turboprop with six stations and up to 480 kg of weapons.

Where has the Wing Loong been used in combat?

In Libya, Yemen, North Sinai, Nigeria, Somalia and, by Pakistan, in strikes inside Iran in 2024.

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