China tests AI-powered long-range artillery that can hit a person 16km away
- Multiple test launches achieve lethal accuracy greater than guns used now
- High-precision cannons could significantly cut costs of war, researchers say
In multiple tests conducted under various conditions last July, the researchers determined that their AI-powered laser-guided artillery could hit human-sized targets 16km (9.9 miles) away.
The precision achieved in the tests, which exceeded expectations, was far higher than that of any big guns in service, according to photos of the tests that showed the shells hit target boards in the bull’s-eye.
“Artificial intelligence is evolving quickly. More researchers are applying the technology to trajectory planning problems,” said the project’s team leader, Professor Wang Jiang, from the Beijing Institute of Technology, in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Acta Armamentarii on April 6.
Instead of traditional mathematical methods, AI offers the potential for faster data-processing speeds, according to Wang, as well as collaborators from China’s defence industry and experts from a Beijing-based China-United Arab Emirates Belt and Road joint laboratory on intelligent unmanned systems.
Once a smart shell is launched, it must quickly collect and analyse a wide variety of environmental data to fine-tune its course – calculations that can increase exponentially with the number of variables.
The shell’s computer chip must be as simple as possible as it must withstand the enormous heat and shock of artillery fire. Facing such demands, processors must often discard valuable raw data to complete the calculations in time, thus affecting overall accuracy.
But with AI, even a slow computer chip can finish necessary calculations using nearly all available data, according to Wang’s team.
As it learns from training based on data collected in real flights or laboratory experiments, AI can bypass some of the more demanding calculations performed under traditional approaches, according to the researchers.
The team also tested several AI models on tasks associated with sophisticated trajectory adjustments during flight. This division of labour among the AI models enabled further accuracy improvements, they said.
Last year, the US Army awarded a US$66 million contract to arms maker Raytheon for an unspecified quantity of GPS-guided artillery smart munitions, with ranges of up to 40km, according to some media reports.
Chinese state media last year released footage of a live-fire exercise, which showed a moving car being destroyed by a smart artillery round, but the effective distance and accuracy of the weapon was not disclosed.
A new smart mortar deployed by the PLA has also reportedly achieved hits within centimetre-precision. However, mortars usually have shorter ranges and lower speeds compared to artillery.
Meanwhile, debate has continued over whether artillery fire requires such high accuracy.
Since shrapnel from a heavy shell blast can hit a person several hundred metres away, some military experts have said precision is unnecessary.
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“It will help reduce civilian casualties and damage to surrounding buildings. It will make reunification and reconstruction after the war easier,” he said.