SoylentNews

Runaway1956 [soylentnews.org] writes:

Fighting drones take center stage in China's Zhuhai air show

Cloud and AI open up new possibilities under Xi's military-civil fusion policy

BEIJING -- From combat clouds to drone swarm attacks, this year's Zhuhai air show demonstrated China's rapid advancements in uncrewed military technologies under President Xi Jinping.

China will "speed up the development of unmanned, intelligent combat capabilities," Xi had pledged in his written report to the Communist Party congress in October, where he began a rare third term at the party's helm.

True to this goal, the China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, which ended Sunday, featured an extensive display of cutting-edge weaponry. But it also highlighted some ways that China is falling short, suggesting that it still may take years to build a military that rivals America's in quality as well as quantity.

Defense contractors and civilian companies alike brought to the show a bevy of uncrewed vehicles, from aircraft to tanks, in a wide range of sizes. But unlike last year, they focused not only on the drones' individual capabilities, but also their connectivity to crewed assets and remote command centers.

A concept similar to the "combat cloud" under development in the U.S. was also presented. China appears to be working on better precision-guided weapons, information transfers and sensor capabilities, integrating artificial intelligence into weapons systems to enhance military operations.

China North Industries Group (Norinco) displayed a combat system aimed at minimizing human casualties through the use of interconnected drones, uncrewed tanks, loitering munitions and four-legged transporters. The system may have been designed with an eye on a potential invasion of Taiwan.

Multiple companies presented counterdrone capabilities. China Aerospace Science and Industry's system equips individual military vehicles with their own low-altitude search radar and counterdrone weapons, allowing them to respond flexibly to conditions on the ground. It can be paired with the ZK-K20 tactical command system.

The FK-3000 air defense system intercepts drones and loitering munitions using missiles, anti-aircraft guns and other weaponry. The LW-30 laser weapon system can shoot down a drone in seconds for less than $2, eliminating the need to use expensive munitions to take down equipment that is usually relatively cheap. The system is already being exported to the Middle East.

Aviation Industry Corp. of China (AVIC) unveiled its Wing Loong-3 attack and surveillance drone at the show. The aircraft can stay airborne for more than 40 hours, twice as long as older models. With a range exceeding 10,000 kilometers, it could reach India or U.S. military bases in Guam.

The Wing Loong-3 can carry a payload totaling 2.35 tonnes between the eight hardpoints under its wings and internal storage, Chinese media report. This amounts to five times the capacity of the Wing Loong-2, which is already in operation, and is expected to give a major boost to China's offensive capabilities.

The Wing Loong-3 can shoot anti-aircraft missiles, which other Chinese drones cannot yet do. The unit displayed at the Zhuhai air show was armed with the PL-10 air-to-air missile -- a fourth-generation missile that has a 20-km range and is often compared to the AIM-9X in the U.S. -- as well as with anti-tank and satellite-guided weaponry.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Aerospace-Defense/Fighting-drones-take-center-stage-in-China-s-Zhuhai-air-show [nikkei.com]

Original Submission