China’s Prepped for Drone Fight, Still Investing in Advanced Weapons

China’s armed forces showed off new drones and electronic warfare systems in a high-profile military parade last week, underscoring a notable push to expand uncrewed weapons and the tools to counter them.

But alongside the drone tech came fresh missiles and tanks — a reminder that Beijing likely views drones as just one part of a broader military buildup aimed at preparing for future conflict.

China has set its sights on building what it calls a “world-class military,” which is to say a military that can compete with the country’s main rival, the United States.

Drones of all shapes and sizes — and countermeasures for them

During the parade commemorating the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender and the end of World War II, China unveiled a variety of uncrewed systems for use across different battlespaces.

Among the advanced missiles, fixed-wing drones, and armored vehicles rolling through Tiananmen Square, several vehicles, like the Type-100 armored fighting vehicles, stood out with relatively large quadcopters mounted on the hulls. The drones were fitted with gimbal cameras and appeared to be designed for battlefield reconnaissance missions.

Other drones on display included uncrewed ground vehicles, such as one fitted with a remotely operated turret and another seemingly built for mine-clearing or explosive disposal. Robot dogs could be seen in the mixture of weapons, and China also revealed new uncrewed surface vessels armed with mounted guns, as well as the torpedo-shaped HSU100 and AJX002, long-range underwater drones.

China has long worked on uncrewed weapons, but the lessons of the Ukraine war — where drones have dominated combat — may be shaping and refining its programs, said Mick Ryan, a retired Australian major general and warfare expert. That potential influence is visible in uncrewed ground vehicles, which Ukraine has used extensively in the past 18 months to extend reach on the battlefield, and in uncrewed surface vessels, a capability relevant to any Chinese effort to blockade or invade Taiwan.

The suspected capabilities of these drones also suggest China is exploring the different ways in which it can employ drones.

“If you look at how drones are being used and the types the Chinese are showing, they’re used for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, they’re used for strikes, they’re used for spotting for artillery and missile strikes, they’re used for battle damage assessment,” said Seth Jones, president of the Defense and Security Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.

“It’s highly likely that the PLA [People’s Liberation Army, China’s military] is learning a lot of lessons from Ukraine,” he said.

Beijing also highlighted an array of counter-drone defenses. Among them was the OW5-A50, a truck-mounted laser weapon that state media billed as a “high-energy” laser system. Similar to the UK’s DragonFire project and US directed energy programs, it’s designed to disable drones at a fraction of the cost per shot.

The laser weapons suggest China has thought about the cost tradeoff of defending against cheaper uncrewed vehicles and drones, Jones noted.

Other Chinese counter-drone weapons included the Type 625-E, a vehicle-mounted 25mm autocannon modeled after Ukraine’s mobile drone-hunting groups and reportedly tested this summer against drone swarms, and the FK-3000, a 6×6 vehicle combining surface-to-air missiles with a 30mm turret.

China’s military parade also spotlighted the military’s three newest branches — the Information Support Force, Military Aerospace Force, and Cyberspace Force — highlighting efforts to weave electronic warfare and advanced technology deeper into China’s doctrine. State media further touted the role of artificial intelligence, describing several warfighting systems as AI-enabled, including a new Type-100 tank billed as “highly intelligent.” To what extent the systems and others are ready for combat is unclear.

More to war than drones

Drones were far from the only thing China displayed in its capital city. New and upgraded missiles were present. The parade, the first time such a grand procession has been organized in six years, included a new solid-fueled DF-61 intercontinental ballistic missile, said to be an improvement over the relatively new DF-41 mobile-launched missile Beijing currently has in its arsenal.

With ICBMs like the new DF-61, upgraded DF-31BF, and new DF-5C on display alongside the new-generation sea-launched JL-3 missile and air-launcher JL-1, China presented its strategic nuclear triad for the first time.

The military parade in Beijing also spotlighted Chinese aerial power, with J-20 stealth fighters, the new carrier-based J-35, and KJ-600 early-warning aircraft flying overhead alongside new Z-20 helicopters.

On the ground, Beijing rolled out a mix of air defenses — from HQ-9C and HQ-20 missile batteries to short-range HQ-10A systems — as well as various land-attack and anti-ship missiles, including the hypersonic YJ-17 missile.

“Drones aren’t the future of warfare, but they’re an important part of it,” Ryan said, adding that “drones extend the capacity of conventional systems, but they rarely fully replace them.” The mix of capabilities “will be different for different missions and different theaters and different domains,” he explained.

Analysts caution that lessons from Ukraine should not be overstated: drones have been vital partly because Kyiv lacks other weapons, but they’re no substitute for traditional military advantages and far from a silver bullet on the battlefield.

In a recent report, Justin Bronk, an airpower expert at the Royal United Services Institute, noted that massive drone arsenals are not winning the war for either side.

“Betting heavily on massed UAS for lethality is a dangerous strategy,” he wrote, referring to uncrewed aerial systems. The argument is that drones supplement or augment capabilities rather than replace them altogether.

The same could hold true for China, which fields advanced offensive and defensive systems that make it far more formidable than if it bet everything on drones.