TECHNOLOGY SCAN : CHINA

01 MAY 2019

Brig Rajeev Kumar Bhutani (Retd)

PLA Trains Super Soldiers with Futuristic Weapons.

A Chinese soldier waves a knife but fires bullets from it. Photo: cctv.com

Hand-held knives that fire bullets, pistols that shoot around corners and assault riflesthat launch grenades: these are just some of the futuristic individual combatweapons China wants to equip its special forces with to create "super soldiers”. ThePLA special forces are aiming to build "super" soldiers capable of "1 vs 10" and tomeet the requirements of the digitalization of modern warfare.

According to a report by cctv.com, the wide variety of advanced firearms is used inan internal competitive training by the Xuefeng Special Operation Brigade under thePLA 76th Group Army.

The corner shot pistol system can be used so that the muzzle points to a differentdirection across a wall, while the soldier aims the weapon behind the wall with thehelp of a monitor. In dangerous urban warfare, the system allows the operator toaccurately shoot targets without exposing himself to hostile attackers, the reportsaid.

A knife gun hides bullets inside what seems to be a knife, which can be fired in closequarters combat.

The grenade-launching assault rifle, also known as the Individual ComprehensiveOperation System QTS-11, integrates the function of a rifle and a grenade launcheralong with an advanced aiming module.

Wei Dongxu, a Beijing-based military analyst, calls the new arms "sci-fi" weaponsthat will make one Chinese soldier the equal of 10 adversaries. He told the GlobalTimes, "The weapons are made for special forces… Some standard troops will alsouse them in the future," but these high-tech guns will remain exclusive to elite forcesfor a while because of their higher cost, he predicted.

In the 1990s, the US developed the XM29 rifle that is similar in concept to the QTS-11. However, it was too expensive to win bids from the US Army, Science andTechnology Daily reported.

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The QTS-11, dubbed a "strategic rifle" by Chinese military observers despite being atactical weapon, gained its nickname because it not only has multiple functions andprovided the strongest individual firepower in the world, but is also highly digitalizedwith sensors, a positioning system and a data sharing system, making it a cut aboveother tactical weapons, media reported.

Comments. While the weapons may sound a bit like something Q developed forJames Bond, China isn't the first country to work on these kinds of things. In 2015,the US Defense Advanced Research Products Agency said it was developing.50-caliber bullets with optical sensors that could change direction in mid-air.

(http://eng.chinamil.com.cn/view/2019-01/09/content_9400035.htm;andhttps://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/19/asia/china-new-weapons-2019-intl/index.html)

Capt (IN) KK Agnihotri

China Develops World's First Armed Amphibious Unmanned Vehicle.(Source: www.globaltimes.cn/content/1145839.shtml)

China claims to have successfully tested the world's first armed amphibious droneboat on 08 Apr 19. The unmanned ship, named Marine Lizard, has been built byWuchang Shipbuilding Group at Wuhan, under China Shipbuilding IndustryCorporation (CSIC). Having a maximum operational range of 1200 km, theunmanned surface vehicle (USV) can be remotely controlled via satellites. The 12-meter-long USV is a trim ran propelled by a diesel-powered hydro jet and can reacha maximum speed of 50 knots. When approaching land, the amphibious USV canrelease four track units from under its hully, and travel at 20 km per hour on land.The USV's payloads include an electro-optical system and a radar system. It canalso be equipped with two machine guns and a vertical launching system for anti-ship or anti-aircraft missiles, as required.

Comments. It can reportedly sail autonomously, avoid obstacles and plan routeswith the help of indigenous Beidou satellite navigation network. This amphibiousUSV would be suitable for island assault operations, either individually or as a swarmin the first wave of beach assault. The USV could also be an option for coastaldefence. The USV can supposedly remain inactive for up to eight months beforeengaging in combat once it receiving orders. Guided by China's BeiDou NavigationSatellite System, the Amphibious USV can function with other units in the theatre inan integrated command system.

Brig Navjot Singh Bedi

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Evolving FPGA Technology for Cognitive Techniques in Radars. FPGAtechnology continues to improve and the computational capability of today’s FPGAsopens the door for innovative techniques that weren’t possible five years ago. Forexample, engineers are now applying machine learning techniques so that radarsare more responsive to their environment. By using machine learning, radars canperform new techniques like automatically recognizing different targets, or adjustingtheir operating frequency or waveform based on what’s going on around them.

Comments. Higher level FPGA programming tools like the Lab VIEW FPGA Moduleare becoming more capable, making it easier to port algorithms to FPGAs. This is agame changer for engineers and scientists who don’t have previous HardwareDescription Language (HDL) expertise or who have tight timelines. The tightintegration between NI hardware and software allows Lab VIEW FPGA to go a stepfurther by abstracting the hardware infrastructure, such as PCI Express, memorycontrollers, and clocking.

(Source: https://forums.ni.com/t5/NI-Blog/4-Underlying-Technologies-That-Are-Changing-the-Game-for/bap/3838006?cid=Twitter-127904-Global-Paid_Broadbased)

China Using Bandwidth hired from US Satellites. U.S. forces frequently patrolSouth China Sea in order to ensure free commerce routes. However reportedlyChina is using nine US satellites to provide information to Chinese soldiers onremote and contested outposts in the South China Sea and to also strengthen theirpolice forces against social unrest and ensure the state message reaches as far as itcan. A tenth satellite, which is currently under construction by Boeing, is supposedto enhance the Chinese version of the U.S. Global Positioning System, which in turncould help the Chinese military guide weapons to their targets.

Comments. Though China has made rapid strides in high technology fields like AI,yet it lags behind US in terms of space tech. CIA has recently warned alliedintelligence assets of the dangers of dealing with Chinese telecom companies suchas Huawei. While U.S. has laws prohibit US companies from exporting satellites toChina, the laws do not regulate how bandwidth from those satellites are used. Chinais able to thus rent bandwidth from U.S. satellites. Also, offshore firms have allowedChina to utilize U.S. technology without drawing suspicion. In China, the Internet is

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heavily regulated, with the government overtly reminding the local population thatthey are always being watched.

(https://nationalinterest.org/blog/secret-sky-china-using-american-satellites-military-gains-54157)

China’s Strategic Edge in Global Communications. In 2016, Huawei laid 1200-kmlong submarine communications cables, connecting the scattered Maldivian atolls.China later installed a land-based cable network from Tashkurgan in China throughthe Khunjerab Pass in Gilgit-Baltistan to Gwadar in Pakistan (an important port in theCPEC). Huawei is installing the Pakistan-East Africa Cable Express, which willconnect Gwadar, to Djibouti in Africa. China has tested a sophisticated satellite linkto Europe and is laying a 6000-km submarine cable – between Cameroon andBrazil, called South Atlantic Inter Link (SAIL).This makes China only the thirdcountry (after the US & Japan) to offer such a telecommunications connectionbetween Africa and South America.

In a major technology demo in 2017, a consortium of Chinese R&D labs connectedits cities of Beijing, Jinan, Hefei, and Shanghai with an almost 2000-km longquantum-ICT cable network. China has installed a restricted metropolitan areaquantum-ICT cable network for a select number of offices in the city of Jinan. In 2017itself, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) through its Mozi satellite transmittedan inter-continental video call, encrypted with a novel quantum cryptographyprotocol, between ground stations in Beijing and Vienna, Austria. Beijing also hasbuilt a quantum satellite ground station at Shiquanhe in Ngari province in Tibet.China’s autonomous enclaves, like Gwadar and Djibouti, could also possessquantum satellite ground stations or a metropolitan area network of quantum ICTcables, like the one installed in Jinan.

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Comments. China is steadily deploying communications systems to connect itsstrategic and economic assets in Asia and linking them to Africa, and from Africa toSouth America. China has emerged as a major player in global telecommunications.Undoubtedly the Chinese see telecom as a new frontier in their military doctrine. In2015, the PLA’s Zhejiang Provincial Military Command had introduced a new-generation submarine cable-laying ship and a year later, the PLA’s Naval Universityof Engineering had established an R&D laboratory for underwater optical networkscollaborating with the Chinese private sector. In Nov 15, departments dealing withcyber, space, electronic, and IW activities were merged into a single joint operationsdivision called PLA Strategic Support Force (PLASSF) entirely under the commandof the CMC. The PLA is steadily developing capacities to dominate such networksand surpass Russian and American capabilities in the domain.

Quantum ICT systems can transmit data with extremely secure encryption and athigh speeds via satellites or through cable networks. Most of these quantum ICTsystems’ technologies are currently in nascent stages of R&D but could be utilised bythe PLASSF.Ngari is less than 100 km east of the India-China Line of Actual Control.A quantum satellite ground station, located so close to a demarcation line, can beused for covert communications between the PLA’s Western Theatre Command andthe forward military deployments against India. Such ICT-connected enclaves likeGwadar and Djibouti can serve military, political, industrial, and economic intelligenceand counterintelligence management operations.

(Credits-https://www.gatewayhouse.in/chinas-telecommunications/&Chaitanya Giri, Fellow,Space and Ocean Studies, Gateway House)

Self-Driving Tanks and Swarms of Deadly Drones. In a propaganda footagereleased by Russia, an army of 'killer robots' that will assist infantry on the battlefieldhas been unveiled. The video appears to showcase Russia's latest dronetechnology. The robot technology possibly includes killer robots. These come in theform of cat-sized drones and AI-controlled driverless tanks. Presently, the robots willstill require to be controlled by a human beings in the infantry. That includes the AI-controlled driverless tank that follows the aim of a soldier's rifle to obliterate targetswith its own weaponry. However, in future the technology is expected to be fullyautonomous implying that the military hardware will be able to target and kill enemieswithout any human intervention.

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Comments. As per Russia's Advanced Research Foundation (ARF), the ultimategoal is to have an army of robots entirely controlled by AI algorithms. The evolution ofcombat robots is on the path of increasing the ability to perform tasks in autonomousmode with a gradual reduction in the role of the operator. What is of concern is the AIalgorithms /logic which would be used by these machines to take a human life.Moreover, in the eventuality of such a machine being hacked and then taking ahuman life, it is not clear as to who would be responsible ie the agency/ nationowning the machine or the one who manufactured /programmed it or the one whohacked it?

(https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6839445/amp/Self-driving-tanks-swarms-

deadly-drones-developed-Russia.html)

Gp Capt GD Sharma, VSM (Retd)

Chinese Space Denial Weapons.1 China has made great advancements in futureweapons systems, many of which suggest that the Asian giant is planning a lethalbattle against its adversaries, especially when it comes to space denial and disablingor destroying satellites.

From directed energy weapons (DEW) to electromagnetic pulses (EMP) and mobilepulse generators, China has a plethora of options to choose from, most of which aredifficult to get information on.

DEW. In terms of satellite tracking, Chinese technology has grown in leaps andbounds. There are now many space tracking stations dotted all over the country —like one in Ngari, Tibet — which provide accurate data about satellites to be targeted.

1https://theprint.in/defence/these-futuristic-chinese-space-denial-weapons-can-disable-or-destroy-opposing-satellites/210212/

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The facility features four main buildings with sliding roofs. Three of these sheds areconnected with two vacuum spheres. The shape and size indicate that possiblychemical lasers are being used with rare earth metals like neodymium.

It is theorized that the equipment under smaller sliding shed is used for tracking,while the other three are used individually or in conjunction with each other,depending on the effect desired on the target satellite — it can be dazzled, disabledor destroyed by high energy lasers from these ground-located DEWs.

EMP Experiments. China has been observed undertaking some field experimentson EMPs deep in the mountains of Xinjiang.

The test location shows an EMP generator hanging on multiple bar poles — similarto structures observed at Naval Air Station Pax River in Maryland, USA.

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A road leads in and out under the cylindrical EMP generator for equipment andvehicles to be placed exactly under the generator.

This facility is used for researching methods of hardening Chinese militaryequipment and reverse effects on adversaries’ equipment using electroniccomponents.

Mobile Pulse Generators. Another facility in the vast arid land of Xinjiang is also seen experimenting on mobile pulse generators.

These types of non-nuclear pulse generators are used for creating electromagneticinterferences that can disable satellites in a very short span of time.

Air Cmde T Chand (Retd)

China’s Stealth Bomber Development. US Defense Intelligence Agency hasreported a new stealth aircraft project of China developing new medium- and long-range stealth bombers which probably will reach initial operational capability by2025.2 China’s only current bomber is the H-6K, an updated, licensed version of theSoviet Tupolev Tu-16, which entered into service in 1954 and was retired by Russiain 1993. Plans and some potential images of the H-20, the second Chinese stealthbomber has remained a rumor and a mystery until recently. Experts say the H-20 willlikely look a lot like the U.S. Air Force’s B-2, a big, flat, flying wing type design. Whilea long-range bomber like the H-20 will have lower maneuverability, a medium-rangefighter/bomber aircraft could easily make use of the technologies developed forstealth fighter J-20. The DIA refers to the second bomber, with a fighter-bombermission, as a “tactical bomber” with advanced radar and long-range air-to-airmissiles.

2 https://www.airforcetimes.com/flashpoints/2019/02/02/us-intelligence-reveals-another-mysterious-chinese-stealth-bomber-project/

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China has long been developing a massive, 19-foot-long; very long range air-to-airmissile that experts say could pose a direct challenge to US fighters like the F-35, F-22 and all legacy aircraft. But the J-20 likely can’t carry this long missile. A stealthyplatform with a large internal weapons bay, like the fighter/bomber describe by theDIA could, in theory, handle this weapon3. Super-maneuverability is one of the fifth-generation fighter characteristics that China may employ in its new bomber,according to the DIA.

According to the China Daily, Chinese military officials have made clear intentions todevelop a strategic bomber capable of striking targets beyond the second islandchain without aerial refueling, while carrying a payload of at least 10 tons. Aviationresearcher Fu Qianshao stated that China's long-range bomber should have a rangeof at least 12,000 kilometers and 20 tons of payload capacity. In October 2018, itwas announced in Beijing that the H-20 nuclear stealth bomber will be unveiled nextyear during the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the People's LiberationArmy Air Force (PLAAF).4

Currently, the US has Aegis and THAAD missile defenses in Guam and its Japanesebases, which pose a threat to China's fleet of missiles. But the US has noestablished defense against a stealth bomber, which China will likely seek to exploitwith the H-20.5

3 ibid

4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xian_H-20

5 https://www.businessinsider.in/Chinas-mysterious-H-20-bomber-has-a-nuclear-mission-but-thats-got-nothing-on-its-real-threat/articleshow/66516098.cms

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(A possible prototype image of China's mysterious H-20 bomber.CCTV screengrab)

China’s H-20 stealth bomber will join the J-20 fighters, Y-20 airlifters and Z-20helicopters in the Chinese Air Force’s “20” series of new aircraft. Many observersbelieve the “20” means they would be in service around the year 2020. A prototypeH-20 has been seen in some videos and pictures and has a similar design of the USB-2 stealth bomber, with a built-in fuselage and no tail6.

It is not yet clear as to which aero-engine would be fitted on the new bomber aircraft.The engine will decide much of the stealth features and maneuverability of theaircraft. China so far has not been able to have an indigenous aero engine for itsstealth fighter J-20. Other design features like airframe materials, avionics, generalsystems (undercarriage, fuel system, hydraulic systems) and so on could well bereplicated from the experience on J-20 and J-31aircraft but aero engine design willhave to be matured to make a truly modern stealth bomber aircraft.

6 https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2018/12/chinas-h-20-stealth-bomber-copy-of-the-us-b2-leads-a-new-wave-of-military-gear.html

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