Chinese drone manufacturers are betting on low-cost interceptors created using 3D printing and equipped with artificial intelligence. The new type of technological weapons is being actively exported abroad, in particular to Russia.
Chinese drone manufacturers are betting on low-cost interceptors created using 3D printing and equipped with artificial intelligence. The new type of technological weapons is being actively exported abroad, in particular to Russia.
This was reported by the Financial Times based on the results of China’s largest drone exhibition in the technology center of Shenzhen.
Instead of traditional electronic warfare or jamming, China’s new interceptors destroy enemy aircraft through direct kinetic strikes. Thanks to the integration of artificial intelligence modules, the accuracy of these aircraft, which can reach speeds of over 300 km/h, has increased significantly over the past year.
Chinese companies have quickly mastered the new segment, as the key components of the interceptors are unified with conventional civilian drones. The exhibition mainly demonstrated small 3D-printed missiles with four wings, electric motors and guidance cameras in the nose. The cost of such devices ranges from 10,000 to 20,000 yuan (approximately $1,500 to $2,900), although versions without auto-guidance systems are even cheaper.
According to the founder of Shenzhen Weichuan Model Equipment, Wen Ting, the company began developing interceptors only in the fall, but is already selling «several thousand» units per month, including to Russia and the Middle East.
Western experts note the total dominance of the PRC in this field. Andrew White, a patent lawyer at the London firm Mathys & Squire, emphasized that last year Chinese institutions filed twice as many patent applications in the field of counter-drone technologies as the United States. At the same time, analysts note that the main challenges for such disposable systems remain the complexity of integration with radars and protection against massive attacks by drone «swarms».
Recall that in March, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that Ukrainian interception technologies are already being used by the Persian Gulf countries, and the concept itself is attracting the attention of international partners due to the rapid reduction in the cost of destroying air targets.
