For the first time, China publicly demonstrated the complete working process of the Atlas system for operations with a swarm of drone units, which further emphasized the accelerated development of autonomous military technologies. The system was presented through a test in real conditions, where the drones performed a coordinated reconnaissance and precise attack on the target.
The development of this system is associated with the company China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, while the demonstration was shown through a report on Chinese state television.
Atlas, with the deployment of swarms of drones, changes the rules of modern warfare
The Atlas system consists of multiple components, including the Swarm-2 combat vehicle, a command vehicle, and logistical support. One Swarm-2 vehicle can launch up to 48 drones, while the command vehicle simultaneously controls as many as 96 units in a swarm.
During the demonstration, the system independently performed target recognition, drone launch and precision strike, without direct human control over each individual device. The drones coordinated their movements in flight, avoided collisions and adjusted the formation in real time.
The special strength of the system lies in the so-called “swarm intelligence”, where each drone functions as part of a wider network. Thanks to advanced algorithms and AI processing, units exchange data with each other, adjust positions and optimize offensive and reconnaissance tasks.
This approach enables several application scenarios: mass saturation attacks that overload the opponent’s defenses, precise strikes with constant tracking of the target, as well as deep operations at long distances with difficult detection.
The system also enables flexible deployment of different types of drones: reconnaissance, communication and combat, which can be combined depending on the task.
What further changes the paradigm is the fact that one operator can control almost a hundred drones, which shows how much warfare is moving towards automation and algorithmic decision-making.
The development of such systems points to a broader trend: the integration of artificial intelligence into military operations, where autonomous systems are increasingly taking over key functions on the battlefield, the Global Times reports.