Embarrassed Chinese military admits new anti-drone tech misses 60% of targets following latest ‘challenging’ test

TECHNOLOGY built by the Chinese military to shoot drones out of the sky has missed the majority of its targets in recent testing.

According to state media CCTV, the anti-drone swarm artillery system failed to take down 60% of its targets.

China's People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) wanted to see how the technology would perform in battle, however, it was not as effective as they might have hoped.

“Shooting at drone swarms was still quite challenging due to their speed and small size, as well as their ability to change flight trajectories – making it easy for gunners to lose their targets,” Duan Xiaolong, from an unnamed regiment with the PLA Ground Force’s 77th Group Army explained to CCTV.

Drones have been used in warfare for decades, but using drone swarms to swamp an enemy has only been mastered fairly recently.

This is when a large number of drones, typically controlled by one operator, work together to scramble defense systems.

An unnamed military onlooker on Chinese social media platform WeChat claimed the artillery used in the exercise may have been from the 1990s or 2000s.

They explained that this could have impacted the damage and success rate, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.

The person added that using electronic jamming systems, surface-to-air missiles, and automatic rifles would improve the hit rate. 

While the training exercise suggests China is keen to strengthen its anti-drone capabilities, Beijing has taken great strides in advancing its technology.

In March, Chinese researchers revealed they had developed drones that can divide and multiple into multiple vehicles mid-air.

Once a drone reaches its target, it can split into two, three or even six smaller drones to confuse rival defences.

This new type of war drone is unlike any ever seen on the battlefield - so far.

The US currently lacks sufficient drone detection, according to a report from Interesting Engineering, and doesn't yet have to tech to neutralise multiple drones simultaneously,

SCMP reported that Chinese manufacturers have been told to accelerate efforts to produce smarter anti-drone weapons, including electronic jamming and lasers used by the US.