China Conducts Multi-Domain, Networked Drone Attack Operations

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

The Chinese military reports its refining a cutting edge ability to network unmanned systems between the People’s Liberation Army Air Force and Army in coordinated, remotely operated drone attack operations. 

Remotely controlling attack drones using datalinks and satellites has of course been possible for decades with the US military, and China is likely to operate with this technolgoy as well. What may be a step forward for the Chinese, however, may pertain to the extent of networking and multi-domain connectivity the PLA Air Force is now capable of. 

A Chinese government-backed newspaper called the Global Times says the PLA Air Force has been pioneering new “methods of drone combat” involving operations with other services. 

“Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force has been practicing new methods of drone combat, including remote controlled takeoffs and landings and jointly operating with other military services and branches.In a recent exercise held in the deserts of Northwest China, a GJ-2 armed reconnaissance drone conducted reconnaissance and strike training in a realistic combat scenario. The drone operators, operating the drone remotely from a location far away from the airfield, were tasked to search, detect, identify, locate and attack multiple targets within a single sortie,” the Global Times reports. 

On the surface, the Chinese newspaper report indicates the presence of simple, long-established drone combat operational possibilities, yet the true measure of progress or potential “breakthroughs” likely pertain to the extent of multi-domain networking. For many years now, the PLA has been conducting joint, multi-service training exercises in a way that reveals a clear attempt to replicate US military multi-domain task force training. For many years, Congressional and Pentagon decision-makers have documented concern about Chinese efforts to steal military technology and “replicate” US weapons systems in their own military, yet what is lesser known is the extent to which the Chinese military also appears to copy, replicate or “steal” cutting edge US tactics. 

Chinese multi-domain attack connectivity linking different services to one another appears as an effort to replicate what is arguably the most significant U.S. military program … Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2). The idea is to engineer a meshed network of dispersed yet securely connected combat nodes across a combat area. The intent of JADC2 is, among other things, oriented toward reducing sensor to shooter time to expedite a combat decision-making cycle and stay in front of an adversary.