China’s extensive investments in unmanned systems and their incorporation into informatized and eventually intelligentized warfare is a central component of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA’s) modernization. The PLA Services—particularly the PLA Army (PLAA), PLA Navy (PLAN), and PLA Air Force (PLAAF)—are all developing capabilities that will rely on unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to provide key enabling information to kinetic and information operations. The PLA does not expect to be intelligentized until 2035 and was “basically” mechanized only by 2020.1 For a force seeking to take such a massive conceptual and technological leap, it cannot be assumed that operational integration and readiness of new advanced platforms is advancing at the same pace as technical innovation. It is important to interrogate current PLA concepts of the employment of currently fielded systems to understand how the PLA might employ its force through the varying levels of armed conflict in the near term.
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