Chinese state media are encouraging private drone companies to participate in national defense construction

Chinese state media published an article describing that many private enterprises are actively developing drones that can serve national defense construction, and quoted experts as saying that foreign experience shows that simple solutions using civilian technology may also be very useful in specific battlefields, suggesting that China should reserve some simple solutions in peacetime.

The interviewed scholars believe that the practice of the Russian-Ukrainian war shows that the quantity of drones is more important than the quality, which makes the cost advantage of civilian drones more obvious; Promoting civil-military integration, while not necessarily preparing for potential conflict, can help the economy of national defense.

The Global Times on Wednesday (August 7) introduced private drone companies such as Zhuhai Ziyan, Red Wing Forward, Guangxi Jinghang and Tianjin Innovation to produce products with military potential, saying that many civilian industrial drone platforms can be adapted for military missions, and private companies' innovative thinking can also provide new ideas and solutions for national defense construction.

Among them, Zhuhai Ziyan has a collaborative transport system that supports up to 30 unmanned helicopters, which can deliver supplies to remote border posts and frontline points.

The Red Wings have demonstrated unmanned combat systems incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) technology, including a combat traverser that recognizes suicide attacks based on AI images. The company's products can also integrate individual soldiers, robot dogs, unmanned vehicles, drones and other equipment into manned or unmanned cooperative combat systems through mesh tactical AD hoc networking, forming a complete ecosystem of interconnection.

Du Kai, sales director of Tianjin Innovation, said that some Chinese civilian UAV companies have certain technical strength in data processing and analysis, which can help the military deal with massive data in the unmanned era, and then improve the scientific decision-making and combat effectiveness.

Guangxi Jinghang a low-cost observation and attack integrated UAV solution, using long-endurance vertical takeoff and landing fixed wing UAV to release two crossing aircraft from the air, can be 50 kilometers away to carry out search and precision strike. The entire system, which costs less than 1 million yuan (S $180,000), can strike outside the range of tens of millions of US-made M777 howitzers.

The article emphasizes that private enterprises will pay more attention to cost control in the development, and mature civilian technology is also convenient for large-scale production, which can be used as a supplement for high-performance intelligent ammunition in wartime, helping to create high-tech equipment with low cost.

Taiwan military expert T Leyi told Lianhe Zaobao in an interview that the Russia-Ukraine war as an example pointed out that the two countries used a large number of drones on the battlefield, which significantly affected the trend of the war.

Qi Leyi believes that one of the Revelations of this war is that drones do not necessarily have to be very advanced, but the number must be large, otherwise even the influence of the campaign level is not enough.

According to his analysis, in the information age, at least 60% of civilian technologies have dual-use attributes, and letting private enterprises enter the military field is an inevitable choice to promote civil-military integration.

Song Zhongping, a Chinese military commentator, said in an interview that the push for civil-military integration may not necessarily focus on potential conflicts, but it is prepared, and promoting the participation of private enterprises will help develop the national defense economy and develop national defense with the least cost.

Although civil-military integration is a development trend, Qi Leyi pointed out that private enterprises' participation in national defense construction is still facing secrets and other thresholds. Under the general trend of the state advancing and the people retreating, it is not easy for folk creativity to truly transform into combat effectiveness.