Life of Soldiers | Anti-Submarine Warfare: Doctrine and Capabilities of the PLA Navy

At the recently concluded Zhuhai Airshow in Guangdong, China, a new unmanned combat vessel of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), the ORCA, made its debut as part of the Asian giant’s naval arsenal. As official sources highlighted, this 500-tonne displacement high-speed stealth unmanned surface combat vessel, equipped with a diesel-electric dual-mode propulsion system, is capable of performing a host of tasks including Beyond-Visual-Range (BVR) fire strike, and air and missile defense. But perhaps what is most interesting, is its reported ability to perform anti-submarine search and strike autonomously. If true, the PLAN may just be ushering in a transformed era for China’s undersea warfare capabilities.

By Anushka Saxena

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How Emerging Technologies Are Driving China’s Readiness For Modern Warfare

In this year’s annual session of the National People’s Congress, Premier Li Keqiang presented a finance report with an estimated 1.45 trillion yuan (US$230 billion) set aside for defence spending in 2022. Although that figure is an increase on last year, it is still less than the US military budget, which is expected to top US$770 billion. This translates into a significant gap in US and Chinese military power. As a result, China’s military modernisation and efforts to leverage technology in warfare have so far been directed to reduce this gap. Thus, Beijing is working to incorporate modern technology into the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). With the development of space and electronic warfare capabilities over the past two decades, China’s armed forces have started to embrace critical and emerging technologies.

Behind Beijng’s proposal to regulate military applications of AI

China recently submitted a position paper on regulating the military applications of artificial intelligence to the sixth review conference of the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW).The takeaway from this position paper is that countries should debate, discuss, and perhaps eschew the weaponization of AI. By initiating a discussion on regulating military applications of AI, Beijing wants to project itself as a responsible international player.