China’s military tests remote 3D printed parts and drone delivery for battlefield: report
US uses similar tactics as it aids Ukrainian frontline soldiers from a maintenance site in Poland, American military paper says
A brigade of the People’s Liberation Army’s Northern Theatre Command Air Force tested remote maintenance technology during an equipment repair drill, the official Chinese military media outlet said on Wednesday. It did not specify when or where the exercise took place.
During the training, soldiers “applied new technologies, methods and equipment such as 3D printing and drones to the entire equipment maintenance process”, the report said.
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An equipment maintenance team used a 3D printer to recreate damaged parts at the back end, and then supported the front line using methods such as drone delivery, the report said.
China is competing fiercely with the US-led West in many areas, including technology and the military.
The US is also applying these remote maintenance tactics as it supports Ukraine.
According to the US publication Defence News, after supplying weapons to Ukraine, the US military provided remote maintenance support based in Poland to help Ukrainian frontline soldiers repair damaged weapons in Kyiv’s fight against Moscow’s invasion.
A report by the publication last year said the US military was trying to extend remote maintenance technology to the Indo-Pacific theatre. It quoted a senior general as saying: “It has been a great enabler to the warfight in Ukraine … It’s one of the game changers in a sense.”
