Beijing deploys drones for South China Sea surveillance
- Air and land system steps up monitoring of contested area
A network of drones has been deployed by Beijing to watch over the islands and reefs of the disputed South China Sea.
The network, run by the Ministry of Natural Resources, covers the uninhabited, hard-to-reach islands as well as the vast open waters of the area, according to the ministry’s South Sea Bureau.
The drone communication chain has “extremely enhanced our dynamic surveillance of the South China Sea, and expanded our reach to the high seas”, the bureau said on its official website.
The air-land system consists of numerous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) carrying high-definition cameras, road-mobile communication vehicles which act as transmission relay stations, as well as a satellite-based maritime information communication network, according to the bureau.
The light drones are intended to supplement China’s satellite remote sensing system – which is often affected by cloudy weather in the area – with higher definition, multi-angle, and real-time images.
The communication vans can be driven or ferried to places that lack a land-based communication station and receive signals sent by the drones. The signals can then be uploaded to the satellite network as still images or live streams, to be displayed thousands of kilometres away at the bureau’s command headquarters in the southern province of Guangdong.