Commentary: What China’s weapons parade says about its army would possibly | USAEMALL.com

COUNTER-DRONE SYSTEMS 

China also displayed something that militaries have been scrambling for: counter-drone systems. 

Experts have been warning about a nightmare scenario of relatively cheap commercial-grade drones striking high-value military assets. On Jun 1, Ukraine demonstrated that this was now possible, when it launched hundreds of drones from deep inside Russia, attacking airbases far from the frontlines and destroying or damaging an estimated 30 Russian military aircraft.

Current air defence systems have been ineffective in detecting and destroying such drones, or are unsustainable given the use of expensive missiles to defeat cheap drones.

At the parade, the PLA rolled out its mobile gun, combined gun-missile, microwave energy and laser counter-drone systems. The threat of drone swarms was clearly on the minds of Chinese military planners – the gun and missile system and microwave energy systems look specifically designed to deal with such attacks. 

The former carried an autocannon along with two banks of missile canisters fitted on a rotating weapons mount. One bank of missiles on the vehicle on display was packing a total of 48 small missile canisters. This means that it could potentially carry a whopping 96 missiles.

This set-up appears similar to the FK-3000 system that was displayed as far back as 2022, at the Zhuhai Airshow. This means that it was conceptualised by PLA planners or China’s defence industry even before Ukraine proved the concept on the battlefield. 

Given that China is one of the world’s foremost manufacturers of small commercial drones, the early recognition of the potential battlefield challenge and delivering solutions even as others are starting to play catch-up is perhaps unsurprising.

The parade underscored how much China has modernised its military and is the world leader in areas like hypersonic weapons. What remains to be worked on is for the various branches of the PLA to work together as a cohesive, integrated force, and while most analysts agree that it is not there yet, it is certainly moving in this direction. 

Mike Yeo is the Indo-Pacific Bureau Chief for defence media outlet Breaking Defense. He has more than a decade of experience as a defence journalist, specialising in regional defence and security matters.