China has revealed that it believes victories in future wars will depend on large drone swarms for “saturation attacks based on numerical superiority.”
This statement comes from PLA Daily, a news outlet covering China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), in a commentary published this Tuesday (23) titled: “Exploring the Winning Formula for Unmanned Attrition Warfare.”
In the article, written by Zhou Xiaoli, Zhang Changfang, and Zhu Qichao, the authors stated that in future wars, it would be imperative to “flexibly deploy low-cost unmanned systems to continuously drain the opponent’s high-value combat assets, thereby achieving ‘optimal combat effectiveness with minimal expenditure on the battlefield.’”
The article also highlights that unmanned combat forces could coordinate across multiple battlefield sectors. This means aerial drones (UAVs) could work in conjunction with unmanned ground combat vehicles.
While aerial drones would be responsible “for firepower strikes and target guidance,” ground combat vehicles would handle “reconnaissance and support” on the ground.
Furthermore, unmanned combat systems could induce exhaustion in adversaries through “routine, incremental, and sustained operations.” According to the article, leveraging the flexibility, intelligence, and diversity of unmanned systems could better achieve “asymmetric victory.”
The article comes as the People’s Liberation Army continues to invest increasingly in unmanned warfare systems. China has gained valuable lessons on the relevance of such technologies from current battlefield conflicts between Russia and Ukraine.
These types of systems are considered key points for the country as it prepares for potential regional conflicts, including those in the Taiwan Strait region.
Photo: Reproduction / X. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
