China reveals 200-strong AI drone swarm that can be controlled by a single soldier — ‘intelligent algorithm’ allows individual units to cooperate autonomously even after losing communication with operator

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) just demonstrated its latest drone swarm tech on state TV, showing a single soldier controlling 200 units. According to the South China Morning Post, the drones are launched from the Swarm I land vehicle, A.K.A the High Mobility Swarm Weapon System, which can simultaneously launch 48 fixed-wing drones that work together. Each unit can then autonomously communicate with each other, allowing the entire swarm to fly in precise formation and divide tasks among themselves, like conducting multi-target reconnaissance and strike operations, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said in the report.

“Each drone is equipped with an intelligent algorithm,” National University of Defence Technology’s School of Intelligent Science research fellow Xiang Xiaojia said to CCTV. “Through interconnection and autonomous negotiation, they can form a powerful, collaborative intelligent swarm.” Aside from that, the drones combat electromagnetic interference using an autonomous anti-jamming algorithm, allowing them to continue operating even without contact from an operator. “Even a single person can control a swarm of more than 200 fixed-wing drones launched simultaneously from multiple vehicles,” the state broadcaster said.