New Images Reveal China’s Stealth Drone At Secretive “Area 51” Base

Commercial satellites just caught two of China’s biggest secret drones sitting outside their hangars at the same time, wingtip to wingtip, at a desert base once built to hide nuclear bomb tests.

Quick Take

Satellite images dated March 26, 2026, show two huge stealth flying-wing drones parked outside hangars at China’s Malan test base in Xinjiang.
The larger aircraft, nicknamed “WZ-X” or the “Monster of Malan,” spans about 173 feet, wider than an American B-2 stealth bomber.
Analysts first spotted the drone in satellite photos from May 2025, and Malan has long been tied to China’s nuclear weapons testing and secret aircraft work.
Experts believe the drone could fly long-range surveillance missions and possibly carry weapons for China’s air force.

A Nuclear Test Site Becomes a Drone Proving Ground

Malan sits in a remote stretch of Xinjiang province in western China. The site began decades ago as a home for China’s nuclear weapons tests. Today it serves a different job. Open-source analysts say Malan has turned into a proving ground for the country’s most advanced and secretive aircraft programs, far from cities, roads, or prying eyes.

Researchers have watched the base for years using commercial satellite companies like Planet Labs. Those cameras pass over the same patch of desert again and again, snapping pictures that get studied by aviation analysts around the world. That steady watch is how the newest sighting came together.

Two Giant Stealth Wings Spotted Side by Side

Images dated March 26, 2026, show two large high-altitude, long-endurance stealth flying-wing aircraft sitting outside their hangars at the same time. It marked the first time both aircraft had been photographed together on the open tarmac near the runway, according to reporting on the imagery.

The bigger of the two drones has earned the nickname “WZ-X” and, among some analysts, “the Monster of Malan.” Its wingspan runs close to 173 feet. That is slightly wider than the United States Air Force’s B-2 Spirit bomber, which spans about 172 feet.

What the Odd Wing Shape Tells Analysts

Analysts first picked up the WZ-X design in satellite photos from May 2025, when it appeared parked at the same sprawling Malan facility used by China’s air force for aircraft testing. Later images sharpened the picture, revealing a “cranked kite” wing shape with broad inner sections that taper into thinner outer edges, a layout built to shrink the aircraft’s radar signature.

China just put a new stealth flying-wing drone in the air that looks like a Klingon Bird of Prey. The cranked-kite shape is the one that does it. From the side it has that hunched, predatory silhouette, and from above it looks like something that should be decloaking over a… pic.twitter.com/lqoFv47iyJ

— CryptoTrev1776 (@UndisputedTrths) September 5, 2026

A second, smaller flying-wing drone, unofficially called “GJ-X,” has also turned up in the same satellite frames. Analysts believe the pair could serve as long-range surveillance aircraft, with some suggesting the larger design might double as a heavy-payload strike platform capable of loitering over the Pacific for extended stretches. Neither designation is official; Beijing has not confirmed either aircraft’s name or role.

What is not in dispute is the physical evidence. Multiple rounds of commercial satellite imagery, gathered across nearly a year, show real hardware sitting on a real runway at a real Chinese test site. That alone tells American defense planners something worth watching: China is putting large, radar-evading, uncrewed aircraft through open-air testing on a scale not seen from Beijing before.