China’s drone modernization efforts close to ‘matching US standards,’ Pentagon report says
A new report published by the U.S. Defense Department on Wednesday warns that China’s development of new unmanned aerial vehicle capabilities for military use are rapidly catching up to the United States’ own advancements in the technology.
As highlighted in the Pentagon’s latest China’s Military Power Report — a congressionally mandated, annual study that details the breadth of Beijing’s military strategies, capabilities and modernization efforts — the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) “is modernizing and indigenizing its aircraft and unmanned aerial systems, rapidly matching U.S. standards.”
During a briefing with reporters ahead of the 182-page document’s publication, a senior defense official said the reference to matching American standards is specific to China’s advancements in UAVs, rather than the PLAAF as a fighting force writ large.
“They’re definitely continuing to improve their capabilities, but we would not assess that they have caught up with or surpassed the U.S. Air Force” technologically as an armed service, the official said. “That would go beyond the judgement that we reach in the report.”
The assessment comes as organizations across the DOD work to develop and buy their own unmanned systems across multiple domains. Notably, the the Pentagon next year plans to field thousands of attritable drones of various types to counter China’s military build up in the Indo-Pacific as part of the department’s ambitious Replicator program.
China is moving forward on its “comprehensive” UAV modernization efforts, as indicated by a number of increasingly modern systems designed for operations across theater and echelon levels, according to the new report.
The nation has marked several key milestones in the last three years, such as airshow displays and operational appearances of several new systems, the document noted. Those platforms include the WZ-7 Soaring Dragon drone, as well as the new WZ-8 reconnaissance UAS and a redesigned version of the GJ-11 stealth unmanned combat air vehicle.
While the People’s Liberation Army is continuing to use its uncrewed aerial systems to conduct intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, Beijing is also expanding its employment of large drones for other operations such as “anti-submarine roles, firefighting, and weather modification,” according to the report.
At the same time, China is using industry air and trade shows to showcase its growing number of manned and unmanned systems that can be teamed together during combat.
“In these concepts, PRC developers are demonstrating an interest in additional growth beyond ISR and [electronic warfare] into air-to-air and air-to-ground combat, with substantial development efforts to produce swarming capability for operational applications,” the Pentagon report stated. “PRC researchers have disclosed the development of a future multi-domain kill-web designed to target penetrating counterair by coordinating across aircraft, sensors, and missiles.”
The Chinese government is also prioritizing the development of AI-enabled technologies for autonomous vehicles, predictive maintenance and logistics, automated target recognition and other military tools, according to the DOD.
“To actualize the level of AI integration that the PLA is envisioning, Beijing recognizes the need to leverage developments from across its commercial and academic sectors. By 2030, the PLA expects to field a range of ‘algorithmic warfare’ and ‘network-centric warfare’ capabilities operating at different levels of human-machine integration. [Chinese Communist Party] leaders believe AI and machine learning will enhance information, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities and enable a range of new defense applications, including autonomous and precision-strike weapons,” Pentagon officials wrote in the report.
“The PLA plans to use AI and machine learning to enhance missile sensors, which may make those missiles more accurate,” they added, noting that the People’s Liberation Army and other Chinese defense organizations have hosted artificial intelligence competitions and “used public purchasing platforms” to increase military access to civilian research and technologies.
