From FPV drones to lasers: 3 ways China is adapting to modern warfare

What happened

Beijing is incorporating selected lessons into exercises, equipment development, and military research. A small drone can threaten a soldier behind cover, a warship at sea, or an aircraft parked far from the front line.

For China’s military, the war in Ukraine offers a running demonstration of those dangers and an opportunity to study them without exposing its own forces to combat. An October 7 analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), drawing on more than 90 Chinese-language sources, traces that process from battlefield observation to publicly visible changes in Chinese preparations.

What China is learning from Ukraine One lesson concerns the combination of inexpensive drones, surveillance, and precision attacks. Chinese researchers have examined Russia’s use of reconnaissance drones to locate targets and direct strikes.