🚨🇨🇳 PENTAGON'S NIGHTMARE: CHINA TESTS “FLYING FISH” DRONE FOR AIR AND UNDERWATER MISSIONS China’s Changsha Nighthawk Intelligent Technology is developing SkyX, a bionic fixed-wing drone designed to fly, dive and move between the two environments. Its prototypes have undergone real-water trials, but stable water-to-air transition remains under development. 🔸 Underwater, SkyX folds its wings against a streamlined body to reduce drag. After surfacing, they unfold into a fixed-wing layout, allowing the drone to glide instead of consuming power by hovering like a quadcopter. 🔸 The developer claims an underwater speed of around 50 km/h and airborne endurance of up to one hour. These remain company-stated figures, with no published independent test data confirming them. 🔸 Development began with a proof-of-concept model in 2021. The fifth prototype entered cross-medium flight testing in 2025, and the company says it has since conducted further trials in real bodies of water. 🔸 The team is working with a laboratory at China’s National University of Defense Technology. Defense organizations have expressed interest, but no military order, operational deployment or weapons integration has been announced. 🔸 Proposed roles include coastal reconnaissance, port and ship inspection, ocean monitoring, emergency rescue and sensor delivery. 🔸 A future military version could approach a coastline underwater, surface for flight and dive again after completing its mission. Switching environments would complicate detection because air-defense radars and underwater sensors are built to track different types of targets. 🔸 Any combat role remains hypothetical. Weaponizing SkyX would require a suitable payload, secure communications, guidance systems and separate testing. Nighthawk is seeking $741K to finance 24 months of engineering work, demonstrations and planned small-batch deliveries. If the transition problem is solved, one drone could inspect the same target from above and below the surface without separate aircraft and underwater vehicles. Can existing defenses reliably track a drone switching between air and water?