China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) just demonstrated its latest drone swarm tech on state TV, showing a single soldier controlling 200 units.
According to the South China Morning Post, the drones are launched from the Swarm I land vehicle, A.K.A the High Mobility Swarm Weapon System, which can simultaneously launch 48 fixed-wing drones that work together.
Each unit can then autonomously communicate with each other, allowing the entire swarm to fly in precise formation and divide tasks among themselves, like conducting multi-target reconnaissance and strike operations, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said in the report.
The drones used in the Russia Ukraine war aren’t stealth. They’re very loud. It’s rare you see combat footage where the victim isn’t aware of the drone. They’ve been effectively used as anti personnel and anti equipment devices. A swarm could be used effectively to overwhelm positions. I have suspicion that this is to counter the upcoming anti drone technology that shoots them with lazers. It could also allow one person to push groups into kill zones.
How long before you get swarms of small supersonic, cheap, missiles and rockets, that people can’t hear coming?