Robots

New Intelligence: China’s Navy To Unveil Large Underwater Robot

China is about to show the world what it has been working on. The government is expected to put on its largest military parade ever October 1 in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. It will be jam-packed with the latest weapons technologies. Much of the new equipment that will be on show is still under wraps, literally. Pouring over grainy candid smartphone photographs of the rehearsals posted on Chinese language social media, military watchers have spotted something hiding under a canvas that I believe will be significant.

One of the camouflage tarpaulins barely hides the outline of what appears to be a very large new underwater robot. Autonomous underwater vehicles, known as AUVs, are the naval equivalent of the killer drones that have rapidly become part of the air warfare landscape. Already a staple of U.S. war-fighting, weaponized unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) are now cropping up in the hands of non-state actors from Syria to Colombia. AUVs, on the other hand, are still the domain of serious navies. And large AUVs are even more elite – most AUVs in service are still very small.