Chinese Army would like to deploy unmanned ground combat vehicles in the future 2407141

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Defence & Security News - China

 
 
Thursday, July 24, 2014 04:04 AM
 
Chinese Army would like to deploy unmanned ground combat vehicles in the future.
Chinese military has started research on developing unmanned armoured vehicles including main battle tanks for deployment in future battles as part of an ambitious plan to modernise its defences. China is making efforts to convert its existing armoured fighting vehicles into unmanned ones for future warfare operations, a senior military official has said.
     
Chinese military has started research on developing unmanned armoured vehicles including main battle tanks for deployment in future battles as part of an ambitious plan to modernise its defences. China is making efforts to convert its existing armoured fighting vehicles into unmanned ones for future warfare operations, a senior military official has said.
As United States, Chinese army would like to use unmanned ground vehicles for combat operations.
     
"Unmanned ground vehicles will play a very important role in future ground combat. Realising that, we have begun to explore how to refit our armoured vehicles into unmanned ones," said Major General Xu Hang, president of the People's Liberation Army Academy of Armoured Forces Engineering in Beijing.

China has a full product chain of tanks and armoured fighting vehicles, boasting domestically developed engines and weapons that are as advanced as those used by Western militaries, the Daily quoted a Chinese military official as saying.

"Our ground forces have been upgrading their tanks and armoured vehicles over the past years. Their new tanks are way better than what they had used since the 1960s in terms of manoeuvrability, firepower, control systems and users' comfort," Academy official Colonel Yu Kuilong said.

The academy has made huge strides in technological innovation by developing cutting-edge driving and shooting simulators, which have enabled junior-grade students to gain experience of what it's like to operate a tank or armoured fighting vehicle before they touch real ones, Senior Colonel Li Shengli, chief of the academy's training department said.

The academy spends at least 200 million yuan ($32 million) a year on the research and development of new armaments, Xu, the general, said.

United States has invented a series of UGVs and tested them in wars. Typical of them are the Foster-Miller TALON remotely operated vehicle series, which has performed around 20,000 explosive ordnance disposal missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and PackBot, also a major aide to US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. They enable military personnel to investigate suspicious objects and other dangerous scenarios from a safe distance.