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China coastguard proposal outlines robotic fortress defense in South China Sea

The plan is aimed at countering low-cost drone swarm threats by using coordinated air, surface, and underwater unmanned systems instead of manned defenses.

A defense proposal covered by South China Morning Post describes how China’s coastguard could shift contested South China Sea islands toward autonomous, robotic fortresses.

The concept, detailed in a Chinese-language journal supervised by the state-run China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, calls for an island defense architecture supported by a coordinated swarm of machines rather than soldiers.

According to the report, researchers from the China Coast Guard Academy’s ship command department and Dalian Maritime University mapped a future that uses an integrated, multi-domain network of drones across air, surface, and underwater domains.

The proposal comes as Beijing looks to neutralize the threat from low-cost drone swarms, and details were highlighted in a July paper published in Command Control & Simulation.

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