China's PLA found "shooting at drone swarms a challenge" in recent air defense exercises

The Chinese militarywhich has been testing its capabilities to defend against enemy drone swarm attacks, has admitted that hitting the small targets accurately could prove difficult.

A first round of air defense artillery An attack on a swarm of drones during a recent People's Liberation Army (PLA) exercise caused only 40 percent damage, state broadcaster CCTV reported last week.

“Shooting at drone swarms was still a big challenge due to their speed and small size, as well as their ability to change flight trajectory – which made it easy for shooters to lose sight of their targets,” Duan Xiaolong of an unnamed regiment of the 77th Army Group of the People's Liberation Army Ground Forces was quoted as saying.

China is one of the world's largest manufacturers of military and civilian drones. In recent years, the country has increased its investments in the development of smarter and faster Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and other forms of drone technology as such are playing an increasingly important role in modern combat.