Paper details autonomous defence system of air, sea and underwater drones to counter growing threat of uncrewed swarm attacks
3-MIN READ3-MINHolly ChikPublished: 10:00am, 19 Aug 2026The South China Sea’s contested islands could be transformed into autonomous, robotic fortresses, according to a defence proposal by the Chinese coastguard.The plan, which was detailed in a Chinese-language journal supervised by the state-run China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, envisions a maritime landscape defended by a coordinated swarm of machines instead of soldiers.The proposal comes as Beijing seeks to neutralise the growing threat of low-cost drone swarms – the asymmetric weapon that has reshaped naval combat as traditional, human-led defences are increasingly vulnerable to uncrewed aerial and surface fleets.
Researchers from the China Coast Guard Academy’s ship command department and Dalian Maritime University’s Marine Electrical Engineering College have mapped out a future where islands are shielded by a seamless, multi-domain network of air, surface and underwater drones.
Details of their plan were highlighted in a paper published in July by the weapons industry and military technology journal Command Control & Simulation.
03:31China and the Philippines trade accusations after clash in South China Sea“In view of the current complex situation in the surrounding sea areas and the practical challenges of low-cost unmanned platform clustering defence, this paper studies the feasible path of uncrewed system defence,” the researchers wrote.
