Beijing’s robotic fortress plan targets South China Sea threats

China could turn contested islands and reefs in the South China Sea into autonomous, robotic fortresses defended by coordinated swarms of aerial, surface and underwater drones.

The plan, detailed in a paper published in July in the military technology journal Command Control & Simulation, envisions replacing traditional troop-heavy defences with a multi-domain network of uncrewed systems and fixed installations, South China Morning Post reports.

Researchers from the China Coast Guard Academy and Dalian Maritime University said the concept was designed to counter the growing threat posed by inexpensive drone swarms, which have increasingly challenged conventional military defences.

“In view of the current complex situation in the surrounding sea areas and the practical challenges of low-cost unmanned platform clustering defence, this paper studies the feasible path of uncrewed system defence,” the researchers wrote.

The proposed system would combine aerial, surface and underwater drones with “fixed nodes of islands and reefs.” According to the paper, such a network could enhance surveillance, cross-domain coordination, rapid response and resilience against attacks.

The researchers cited the war in Ukraine and Kyiv’s use of Magura V5 maritime strike drones as evidence of the changing nature of naval warfare.

“Ukraine has built an asymmetric warfare force with uncrewed surface vessels such as the Magura V5 to strike the Russian fleet in a low-cost clustered manner. This has clearly exposed the vulnerability of traditional large manned ships to uncrewed cluster attacks,” they wrote.

The proposed defence architecture would follow a three-stage decision-making process based on US Air Force Colonel John Boyd’s “observe, orient, decide and act” model.

Aerial drones would conduct wide-area surveillance, while surface and underwater vehicles would monitor low-altitude areas, shallow channels and reef slopes. Artificial intelligence systems would then process data and assess threats, allowing individual platforms to continue operating even if communications were disrupted.

The final defence would consist of three spatial rings. The outer ring would deploy reconnaissance-strike drones and high-speed surface vehicles, while the middle ring would use electronic warfare systems. The innermost layer would rely on close-range uncrewed vehicles, suicide drones and underwater systems.

“Future efforts should test land, sea and air uncrewed swarm collaboration in real marine environments,” the researchers wrote, calling for advances in communications, AI decision-making and energy security.

They also urged China to “deepen military-civilian integration to protect sovereignty and counter uncrewed threats with uncrewed capabilities”.

By Vafa Guliyeva