Chinese People’s Liberation Army forces conduct a live-fire exercise testing layered defenses against a simulated drone swarm.
Reported by:
Cherry Meigh Timbol
News Content Editor
Published October 8, 2026
BEIJING — China’s People’s Liberation Army has conducted combat-oriented training involving defenses against dense drone swarms, highlighting the country’s growing focus on countering unmanned aerial threats.
Footage released by Chinese state television showed a PLA Army unit conducting live-fire exercises in which radar detected a large number of low-flying drones approaching a defensive position. The unit then deployed several types of counter-drone systems.
The systems included ground-based lasers, high-power microwave equipment, missile-and-gun air-defense systems and interceptor drones. The exercise also tested the troops’ ability to relocate and rapidly redeploy their defenses after their position was considered exposed.
The drills come as militaries increasingly study the use of large numbers of inexpensive drones in modern warfare. Analysts have pointed to the war in Ukraine as an important source of lessons for China in both drone operations and counter-drone defense.
China has been developing and testing technologies intended to counter drone swarms, including systems that can use electronic effects, directed energy and conventional weapons against multiple aerial targets.
The latest exercise demonstrates how the PLA is attempting to combine different defensive technologies into a layered response against mass drone attacks.
