An unmanned vehicle participates in a full-element exercise that serves as a graduation exam for some officer cadets of the Chinese People's Liberation Army near Hengshan Mountain in summer 2022. Photo: Screenshot from CCTV

Academies of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) recently integrated a large number of unmanned and intelligent equipment including unmanned vehicles, drones and robots into the amphibious landing training for officer cadets, showing a high level of combat preparedness and what future amphibious landing warfare could be like.

The Shijiazhuang Campus of the Army Infantry College of the PLA, the Non-commissioned Officer School of the PLA Army Medical University, the Shijiazhuang Flight Academy of the PLA Air Force, and an aviation brigade of the PLA 82nd Group Army recently carried out a full-element heavy combined arms battalion exercise, with more than 1,200 officer cadets and troops in active service tested in realistic, round-the-clock combat scenarios for 10 days, serving as the graduation exam for officer cadets, China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Tuesday.

With amphibious landings set as the mission objective of the drill, the officer cadets launched waves of assaults on beaches with amphibious armored vehicles and assault boats before they established landing zones, followed by reconnaissance of combat ranges, then offense and defense of urban areas, CCTV reported.

Unmanned equipment including aerial drones, unmanned reconnaissance vehicles, unmanned anti-tank vehicles, self-propelled weapon stations and robot dogs saw their large-scale deployment in the exercise, as a platoon dedicated to unmanned warfare guided the troops to rapidly engage in combat after gaining an advantage on the battlefield, realizing highly efficient coordinated attacks between troops and unmanned equipment, the report said.

"We integrated a system of unmanned forces into the operation, which effectively enhanced the troops' situational awareness, command and control, as well as the capability to launch strikes on targets," Lieutenant Colonel Fu Xiaowen, an instructor at the Shijiazhuang Campus of the Army Infantry College of the PLA, was quoted by the report as saying.

"At the same time, we put the concepts of unmanned combat into the minds of the officer cadets and fused them into practice to enhance the troops' capability to win in future warfare," Fu said.

The exercise shows the PLA is preparing its troops for amphibious landings in the very early stages of their careers, and that unmanned combat will be a key part of such operations should they take place, a military expert told the Global Times on Wednesday, requesting anonymity.

Amphibious landings are a crucial capability of the PLA, as such missions could be potentially carried out in places like the Taiwan Straits and the South China Sea, the expert said.