China claims ‘world’s first’ military 5G can connect 10,000 robots in any terrain

Christopher McFadden
Tue, December 31, 2024 




China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) secretive 31567 Unit has reportedly
Developed to facilitate large-scale drone integration into the PLA, the new mobile 5G station has been rigorously tested and is now ready for battle.

The new 5G base station allegedly has unprecedented high-speed, low-latency, and extremely secure and reliable data exchange services to at least 10,000 users within a 1.8-mile (3 km) radius. In this case, the "users" would be, in fact, ground- and aerial military drones or robots.

The technology can operate on adverse terrain and reportedly resist electromagnetic interference. To this end, it can provide PLA assets with an uninterrupted total throughput of 10 gigabits per second and a latency of less than 15 milliseconds.

According to its developers, this will prove vitally crucial for advancing PLA units in complex terrains like mountains or cities. The technology was unveiled in a Chinese peer-reviewed paper published on December 17 in the Chinese journal Telecommunications Science.

Mobile 5G for military drones

The main impetus for the new technology is that China seeks to bulk out its military with intelligent war machines. This will include heavy use of robotic dogs and other unmanned combat platforms.

So much so that the PLA ultimately hopes to have more drones than human soldiers. This ambition will, therefore, require highly reliable military communication systems.

However, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reports that existing domestic technology is not up to the task. Due to the difference in nature of military requirements over civilian ones, the PLA also requires any 5G connection to be uninterrupted, especially in areas without ground stations or satellite coverage.

For this reason, the PLA has developed its own mobile 5G ground station technology that can be mounted, in theory, on any existing military vehicle. This mountable system houses three or four 5G "antenna" drones that can take off and land alternatively to maintain constant 5G coverage.

All-terrain WiFi coverage guaranteed

Each drone is autonomous and can land to recharge or take off to replace a landing drone on the vehicle's roof. Reportedly, the system has been thoroughly tested and can “solve issues such as frequent disconnections and low speeds encountered in practical applications,” achieving “safe, reliable, and rapid deployment.”

Regarding electronic interference (both hostile and friendly), the system also has robust countermeasures to ensure 5G coverage in combat. This is achieved using a small communication terminal that can, on the user side, transmit data at an ultra-high power of up to 400 megawatts when subjected to electromagnetic suppression.

When operating near existing 5G civilian areas, the PLA also has ways to piggyback China's 4.2 million base stations. This can be achieved autonomously and in "the blink of an eye."

“The operation of such a vast network necessarily requires powerful automation tools and means, among which automatic station opening technology is one. It can autonomously complete core network base station data production, data loading, baseline parameter configuration, and other tasks,” the research team wrote.