PRC military drone maker's 3Q sales drop 87%
This year's big deliveries came in the first half, after an outsized third quarter in 2025.
AVIC (中无人机), maker of China's Wing Loong military drones, said third-quarter revenue fell 87% from a year earlier to 144 million yuan (about US$21.4 million), mainly because it delivered fewer products.
Third-quarter revenue in 2025 had jumped 1,039.2% from a year earlier to 1.11 billion yuan (about US$165 million) as more products were delivered, that quarter's report said. This year the big deliveries came in the first half, when revenue rose 272.5% from a year earlier to 1.63 billion yuan (about US$243 million) as more products were delivered under contract, the half-year report said.
The Wing Loong drones are armed reconnaissance aircraft in the same class as the U.S. Predator and Reaper. The Wing Loong II looks nearly identical to the MQ-9 Reaper and can carry up to 12 missiles and bombs, though U.S. analysts say it lacks the Reaper’s engine power and range, Aerospace America reported. The earlier Wing Loong can fly missions of more than 20 hours carrying radar, cameras and laser-guided bombs or missiles, according to Airforce Technology.
Its biggest customer has been a sister company, AVIC's import-export arm (中航技进出口), a 6.44% shareholder that accounted for 84.3% of its sales in 2024, a company notice said. At the end of June, that arm and one unnamed customer each owed it about half of all the money its customers owed, the half-year report showed. On Oct. 1, 2025, the company announced a 615.5 million yuan (about US$91.7 million) contract, excluding tax, to supply drone systems to that arm, its notice said. The half-year report says those products have since been delivered. The filings give no order backlog.
Net profit rose 274.3% from a year earlier to 7.7 million yuan (about US$1.2 million), mainly on higher other income, the third-quarter report shows. Excluding one-off items such as government subsidies and gains on its cash investments, it lost 9.7 million yuan (about US$1.4 million) in the quarter.
AVIC is not the only listed Chinese drone maker with lumpy revenue. It booked 1.47 billion yuan (about US$219 million) in the fourth quarter of 2025, nearly its total for the first three quarters, National Business Daily (每日经济新闻) reported in a comparison with JOUAV (纵横股份), a Chengdu maker of industrial drones that said its state-owned and government customers take delivery and sign off at year-end.
Sources: AVIC (Chengdu) UAS, 2026 third-quarter report (cninfo), AVIC (Chengdu) UAS, 2026 half-year report (cninfo), AVIC (Chengdu) UAS, 2025 third-quarter report (Eastmoney), AVIC (Chengdu) UAS notice 2025-037 (上海证券报 Shanghai Securities News), 每日经济新闻 National Business Daily
Editor: Ian Lamont
