Drones

China’s First Drone War Is Here

The United States is still by far the world’s leader in the field of military drones, with hundreds of high-tech, missile- and bomb-armed robot aircraft and thousands of smaller, unarmed models deployed across the planet.

But China is catching up fast. And now we can confirm that Beijing’s remote-controlled warplanes have had their combat debut—in a seemingly unlikely place. A social media post seems to verify what observers have suspected since January: China’s killer robots are at war in Nigeria, apparently helping Abuja’s military battle the deadly Boko Haram extremist group, which controls much of northeastern Nigeria and has kidnapped and enslaved hundreds of girls.