CCTV
Chinese Army “mechanical wolves” during a military exercise
China recently carried out military exercises that simulate an invasion of Taiwan, using an army made up of robotic dogs and swarms of drones. The objective is for these machines to gradually replace human soldiers in combat operations.
Despite Donald Trump e Xi Jinping sought to ease trade tensions during last week, Taiwan continues to be a sensitive topic in the relationship between Washington and Beijing.
China does not rule out the possibility of a island invasionand the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been carrying out a series of military maneuvers near the Taiwan Strait, in a clear signal of your intentions and increasing pressure on the region.
But the most recent exercises distinguished themselves from the previous: PLA forces simulated an offensive against Taiwan using robotic dogs, which the Chinese call “mechanical wolves”, and swarms of attack drones, a strategy that anticipates the possible future of warfare.
According to , the maneuvers took place at the end of October. The PLA and official Chinese media outlets released images of the amphibious exercise, which show a assault wave which, after being repelled by enemy fire, activated robotic artillery and drones to clear the terrain.
A few days earlier, on October 4, the 72nd Group of Eastern Command had carried out another large operation in the same areahighlighting the increased pace of Chinese activities in the Strait and a policy of constant pressure on the island.
In both exercises, the quadruped robots and drones acted in a coordinated manner, breaching barbed wire and trenches in just three to five minutes.
Tests demonstrated that the machines can reduce time between detection and destruction of a target to less than ten seconds. At the same time, other robots transported ammunition, medical supplies and even accompanied paratroopers on raids behind enemy lines.
Robots to replace humans
This new type of maneuvers, which Beijing calls “intelligent maritime tactics”, aims to replace the old method of send successive waves of human soldiers, who resulted in high casualtiesfor precise coordination between humans and machines.
The idea is that robots absorb most of the lossesallowing soldiers to advance in safer conditions and with less exposure.
The role of this robotic army in a possible invasion would be to prevent the blocking of amphibious vehicles, neutralizing enemy defenses that halt progress.
FPV (First Person View) type drones are equipped with cIncluding cameras that allow a 360-degree view and use artificial intelligence algorithms to operate autonomously or assisted by humans.
While drones attack defensive positionsland robots advance, overcoming trenches and obstacles, paving the way for the following units.
These war machines can reach speeds of 20 km/hhave an autonomy of more than two hours and are capable of carrying up to 20 kilos.
As “packs” of robotic wolves can operate in both attack modeequipped with a QBZ-191 assault rifle and explosive charges, as in logistic modetransporting supplies for human troops.
According to the official Chinese press, quadrupedal robots have an artificial intelligence “brain” that gives them some degree of autonomy.
During the tests, it was observed that a single soldier was able to control simultaneously nine robotic dogs and six dronesthrough a three-dimensional interface in real time. This man-machine coordination quadrupled the radius of action compared to a conventional platoon.
Not ready for war yet
The Chinese army’s strategy involves saturate the battlefield with cheap and disposable robots. However, this approach is only effective if drones can nquickly neutralize enemy defenses and if infiltration units cut communications to fortified posts.
If any of these steps failthe burden of operations falls once again on human soldiers.
Despite progress, tests have shown that the technology is not yet mature enough to completely replace humans in a real combat scenario. Chinese commentators admitted that “robots have not proven effective in defensive situations”.
In these types of situations, robotic dogs continue to without shielding sufficient and remain vulnerable even to light fire. They also have difficulties in hide in open ground and face resistance limitations and occasional communication failures.
