The People’s Liberation Army of China has demonstrated some of its most advanced military capabilities during joint drills with Cambodia scheduled to end on Thursday. The list of weapons employed by soldiers included several types of military robots, including a dog-like, remotely operated device equipped with an assault rifle.
“Intelligent equipment,” including all sorts of robots and unmanned aerial vehicles, were the focus of the Golden Dragon 2024 drills, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said in a video report published this week. The clip demonstrated several types of remotely controlled robots used for a wide range of tasks, including reconnaissance, target detection, and even assault operations.
Reconnaissance robot ‘dogs’ weighing 15 kilograms (33lbs) could operate for between two and four hours, providing real-time video transmission to troops, a device operator told CCTV. The robot was shown to be capable of rapidly lying down, of jumping and of moving in various directions on flat terrain. According to Chinese media, such devices are capable of planning their routes and of avoiding obstacles without additional input from their operators.
A heavier version of the robot dog weighing 50 kilograms (110lbs) and equipped with an assault rifle mounted on its back could be seen participating in assault-operation training by the Chinese military. The robot was the first one to enter a building, with an assault squad close behind.
According to its operator, the gun-toting robot dog could replace a soldier on a reconnaissance mission in an urban combat operation and be the first one to identify an enemy and to attack a target. Footage published by CCTV also featured various types of flying drones, including a six-rotor version that is also equipped with an assault rifle.
The drone was shown firing at its target while hovering over a small hangar simulating a building during the exercises.
It was not the first time the Chinese military demonstrated the use of robots armed with guns during its exercises. Another video, published five months ago, also featured a similar robot dog with an assault rifle mounted on its back. That robot was seen being used in a similar ‘vanguard’ capacity as PLA soldiers were storming some buildings.
US troops were also reported to have used similar robots during their training. Video footage of this was published by CNN as early as 2020. However, the US Army model was only used for scouting missions to detect threats soldiers could face in an unfamiliar environment and had no weapons that could be seen in the video.
Drones and unmanned systems have been taking an increasingly prominent role in modern conflicts, as Moscow has shown in its ongoing standoff against Kiev. The Russian military has regularly published videos of its troops using various types of drones to destroy Ukrainian military equipment, including Western-supplied tanks and armored vehicles.
The Lancet family of kamikaze drones, which are also known as loitering munitions, have frequently been mentioned in the context of successful Russian strikes and, in particular, were responsible for the destruction of several US-made Abrams tanks.