New reports claim high-tech Chinese drones are becoming an indispensable key for Russia in the war in Ukraine.
According to the Western Journal, Russian mercenaries are collaborating with operatives of China to develop high-tech “swarm drones,” which would give Russia an even greater advantage in Ukraine. A bombshell report from the Daily Mirror also speculatively detailed how Chinese intel is helping the notorious Wagner Group develop swarm drones with “explosive-tipped and bomb-dropping” capabilities.
Even without the use of “swarm drones” – for now – Russian forces are devastating Ukrainian troops with drones made by China’s Da-Jiang Innovations Science & Technology Co., also known as DJI, which are “flowing from China to Russia directly, sometimes through third-party purchasers, and also indirectly through the United Arab Emirates.”
Another concern surrounding the deployment of these high-tech drones is what China is gaining by watching the machines in real-time combat, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“As DJI and China watch the use of drones in a combat environment, they’re just soaking up data,” a “senior U.S. security official” reportedly told WSJ. “They’re able to see the TTPs, the tactics, techniques, and procedures.”
“Because China has the civil-military fusion, they’re able to then put that in the hands of the [People’s Liberation Army] and learn,” the official said.
Faine Greenwood, a researcher at the Signal Program at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, wrote that drones can “precisely identify targets, taking advantage of relatively cheap drones equipped with hybrid zoom cameras and the ability to send accurate latitude-longitude coordinates back to both centralized command centers and pilots on the ground.”
“At night, drone pilots take advantage of small drones equipped with thermal sensors, devices that are widely used in the civilian world for tasks such as infrastructure inspection, farming, and search and rescue.”
“This swarm drone technology is at the center of the new arms race — and Russia is throwing everything it has at it,” an anonymous arms dealer reportedly told the Daily Mirror.
Russia has also used Western technology in drones throughout the war in Ukraine. A CNN segment took a look inside a drone captured in 2022.
