China's PLA found shooting at drone swarms challenging

0 12

By Matthew Griffin Security and Privacy 7th November 2024

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

Militaries around the world are developing drone swarms that can swamp and destroy enemy targets, and in this first of a kind exercise China’s PLA couldn’t down them all.

Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, read about exponential tech and trends, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog.

In what seems to be a first the Chinese military, which has been testing its capabilities to counter enemy drone swarm attacks, has admitted that accurately hitting the small targets may prove difficult.

Teams of hackers are trying to make AI go rogue and its working

A first round of anti-aircraft artillery launched against a drone swarm during a recent People’s Liberation Army (PLA) training exercise achieved only 40 per cent damage, state broadcaster CCTV reported last week.

“Shooting at the drone swarms was still quite challenging due to their speed and small size, as well as their ability to change flight trajectories – making it easy for gunners to lose their targets,” Duan Xiaolong, from an unnamed regiment with the PLA Ground Force’s 77th Group Army, was quoted as saying.

China is among the world’s top military and civilian drone producers. In recent years, it has ramped up investment in the development of smarter and faster – including hypersonic – Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and other forms of drone technology as such aircraft play a growing role in modern combat.

The US Army just 3D printed a grenade launcher and grenades

Meanwhile, the United States, China’s main geopolitical rival, has also paced up drone delivery to its military with its Replicator Program and is working on drone strategies to counter growing Chinese defence capabilities.

Matthew Griffin / About Author

Matthew Griffin, multi-award winning Futurist and named Futurist of the Year 2024, has been described as a "Walking encyclopaedia of the future" by NASA and a futurist polymath. One of the world's most renowned futurists and strategic foresight experts Matthew is the 15 times author of the blockbuster "Codex of the Future" series, and is the Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm working across the next 50 years, XPotential University, the world's first free futures and foresight university, and the World Futures Forum which works with the United Nations to solve the worlds greatest challenges. Matthew is an in demand international keynote, acclaimed university lecturer and mentor, and host of the hit Fanatical Futurist podcast.

A rare talent in his past Matthew helped build and run several multi-billion dollar business units for Atos, Dell-EMC, and IBM, and his ability to identify, track, and explain the impacts of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends on global business, culture, and society has earned him a powerful reputation and a roster of clients that include royal households, world leaders, G7, G20, and G77+ governments, and many of the world's most respected brands including ABB, Accenture, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi Group, Coca Cola, Dentons, Deloitte, Disney, Dow, EY, KPMG, Lego, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, T-Mobile, UBS, VISA, and many others. He was also the only futurist invited to talk at the UN COP28 held in Dubai alongside world leaders.

Regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, Matthews mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.