Chinese military introduces rifle-carrying robot dog

"It can serve as a new member in our urban combat operations," a soldier named Chen Wei said in a video from China's state broadcaster CCTV.

The two-minute video, which documents China and Cambodia's "Golden Dragon 2024" exercise, shows the robot dog walking, jumping on all fours, lying down and moving backwards under remote control.

During the exercise, a robot dog leads an infantry unit into a simulated building. The latter part of the video shows an automatic rifle mounted under a six-rotor drone, described as a Chinese “intelligent drone.”

This is not the first time China has used military robot dogs and small drones in military exercises. Last year, a video from CCTV also showed a robot dog armed with a rifle during a military exercise in China in November last year.

In 2020, the US Air Force also demonstrated how it is using robotic dogs as a link in its Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS), which uses artificial intelligence and rapid data analysis to detect and counter threats to US military assets.

And since the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022, unmanned vehicles have become commonplace on the battlefield, on land, at sea, and in the air. These cheap, remotely controlled vehicles can destroy complex military machines like tanks and even warships.

The lethality of drones on the Ukrainian battlefield has shown that they are an excellent balance of power, allowing militaries with small defense budgets to compete with much better equipped and invested opponents.

China is one of the world's leading exporters of drones, but last year its Commerce Ministry imposed export controls on drone technology, citing the need to "protect national security and interests."

According to the Global Times, the presence of robot dogs in drills with foreign militaries shows an advanced stage of development. "Normally, a new piece of equipment would not be used in joint drills with other countries, so the robot dogs must have reached a certain level of technical proficiency," said a military expert.

Ngoc Anh (according to CCTV, CNN)