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China reveals 200-strong AI drone swarm that can be controlled by a single soldier
(www.tomshardware.com)
this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2026
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Not that I think drone swarms are particularly far-fetched in the realm of unmanned systems, but haven't we learned by now to not just automatically believe whatever military tech China "announces" on state television?
Since at least 2024, China has been publicly trying to crack down on rampant corruption in its weapons procurement and R+D sectors, a lot of it connected to vaporware fake military tech.
It's crazy how fast this new war tech is moving.
Conflicts around the world are going to move to drones, not just Russian/Ukraine.
Whoever can build millions of these, yearly, and cheaply will have a significant advantage. Will be able to sell them to other conflict zones
An AK-47 is only piratical to 100meters. It was cheap machines guns that rolled back colonial empires like the British, and French, in places like Africa.
I can only wonder what cheap drone tech will do to change world politics?
As a Canadian it gives me relief, if the USA ever decided to invade Canada it would be absolutely brutal for both of us, not just one sided atleast. The fight would be happening back at home like they would never have expected, and would last until the occupation ends.
I can't believe I actually wrote those words in a reality where it could happen... Trump is destroying the world.
If the USA invaded Canada; Nato is over, The USA dollar is over and every country ditches it, World goes into a great depression, France places nuclear missiles in Quebec, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and threatens nuclear war, China would probably take the opportunity to invade Taiwan, Russia would use a small nuclear device in Ukraine as he USA becomes isolated.
If the US invaded us, it would be over in a day with a few months spent rounding up lone fighters.
Our citizens are not hiding stock piles of drones and explosives. We aren’t prepared to fight a long protracted battle like Ukraine was.
Canada has a ridiculous number of guns distributed among the population, especially in the back country. Those old Lee-Enfields still work fine and aren't well documented.
An insurgency in Canada would get messy fast. Smuggled drones from the States and China. Improvised explosives from agricultural producers. Canadians can blend into the US easily and the border would become instantly porous to nonexistent.
The biggest challenge the USA would face would be all the sabotage of the oil fields, Niagara Falls generating station, nuclear reactors, power plants, power lines going to the USA. The American army would also be over-extended meaning that China would make a play for both Taiwan and much of the eastern portion of Russian, specifically all of Russia's Pacific coast, right up to Alaska.
think what absolute chaos could be wrought if a terrorist group were to release a swarm like this in a large city
We've seen something like this in the Russian/Ukraine battle. Russia's old equipment couldn't withstand modern shoulder fired rockets. However those are expensive.
Now we have a stalemate, and both sides are using cheaper drones.
Overnight, much of the tanks/fighter jets became obsolete because of drones and drone swarms. So now the world (especially Europe/USA) rearm.
Apparently Russia has been using (or still is using?) drones to kill/maim civilians in Kherson. That's what I'm really on about - using drones & drone swarms to target normal people going about their day-to-day lives. It's just really hard to defend against, and is only going to get worse as the tech progresses.
Money will rule with an iron fist.
Flying 200 drones at the same time is easy, having them do anything useful/effective is hard. Seems more like bluster than anything effective at this point in time, given AI systems aren't really there yet for precise targeting.
200 drones, each with a high explosive. Cast like a net. Each bomb has a radius of 10ft. So know you have 2000 square feet of carpet bomb, that you can somewhat direct.
You can copy the code from Magic Select in Photoshop and you would be able to draw a shape over the targets on your phone with 1 finger. No need for AI.
A “centaur” is a human being who is assisted by a machine (a human head on a strong and tireless body). A reverse centaur is a machine that uses a human being as its assistant (a frail and vulnerable person being puppeteered by an uncaring, relentless machine).
...
His job was to be the “human in the loop” for an AI that wrote the articles, but on a schedule and with a workload that precluded his being able to do a good job. It’s more true to say that his job was to be the AI’s “accountability sink” (in the memorable phrasing of Dan Davies): he was being paid to take the blame for the AI’s mistakes.
He was, in other words, a reverse centaur.
I called something like that years ago. Whether the report is true or exaggerated or not it is only a matter of time before this becomes reality. This is a terrifying weapon. You can overwhelm any defender with this.
But what I really dread is when someone finds a way of affordably making these drones capable of autonomously identify and attack targets. Imagine what releasing a swarm of those in a crowded city center with instruction to "wander around and attack any human you identify" would do.
Before then, they'll be using facial recognition to identify individual targets.
Given that Sweden has announced developing the same capability, and others likely have forgotten to announce, it's likely true.
That Palantir psycho's image just flashed before me.
I don't really see this as surprising. Drones have been used in mass coordinated swarms for things like new years light displays for years.
It was only a matter of time that gets used as a weapon system/platform.
A swarm doesn't give you much advantage over a single drone though. There's more targets to shoot down, so perhaps there's a better chance of getting one through drone defenses; but they also lose the stealth factor a single drone brings... Maybe a really wide surveillance view if you combine their camera feeds?
IDK, doesn't really seem all that beneficial.
Drone swarms are most useful for many individual soft targets. Personally, as a soft target, I don’t like that.
The economics of war are the only thing preventing more of it. Cheap drone swarms are going to become a blight not unlike land mines. I want them made illegal.
Making drones illegal won’t stop your enemy using them in you.
I don't think they'll be like land mines. They'll cause many problems though. Giving a solider 300 cheap drones with bombs on them, will cost little money. That solders range, to cause trouble, will be extended to 2km, from the 100m that their machine is currently effective from.
The drones used in the Russia Ukraine war aren't stealth. They're very loud. It's rare you see combat footage where the victim isn't aware of the drone. They've been effectively used as anti personnel and anti equipment devices. A swarm could be used effectively to overwhelm positions. I have suspicion that this is to counter the upcoming anti drone technology that shoots them with lazers. It could also allow one person to push groups into kill zones.
How long before you get swarms of small supersonic, cheap, missiles and rockets, that people can't hear coming?
Theoretically, a single operator controlled swarm could be used to all strike a hardened target at once, rather the current tactic we see in Ukraine of multiple drones which all have a dedicated operator being tied up striking an armored vehicle or hardened emplacement.
The ability to have one operator in control of the ability to strike a heavy target would come in mighty handy if you......say.......have to eliminate a lot of prepared coastal defenses on an independence-minded island nation.
Let's say that it is economical to waster up to $100k to kill one solder. A drone fleet of a hundred drones, costing $100k is then cost effective. This is basically replacing the AK47 machine gun, with drones that are used like bullets at this point.
I’ve been wondering when stuff like this would start to be a thing. Imagine this scaled up, like a carrier that instead of launching planes, launches and coordinates hundreds of thousands of these simultaneously.
Or a small pick-up with a 200 drones in the back, launched close the front of a battle field. Russia lost much of its navy to Ukraine. Anything large and slow is a good target.
Haha, Starcraft 2 and CPS goes vrooooooom. We've been training a generation for this kind of warfare.
CNN: Chinese advanced unit zergs Taiwan eastern shore.
Can't wait to die on the battlefield and have a drone T-bag me and utter, git gut scrub, ezpz with a robotic voice.
Maybe this is what gets us to fighting in giant mechs? Gotta look on the bright side.
Wow, i wonder what the world most ethical country gonna do with a swarm of suicide drone. Tiananmen Cube?