China will use robotics to dramatically ramp up production of ordnance beginning this year, as tensions with the U.S. over North Korea and Beijing’s South China Sea expansionism increase.
Production will be guided primarily by robots using artificial intelligence to dramatically increase the Chinese military’s stockpiles of bombs and other munitions.
Robotic production could also include more sophisticated weaponry like guided missiles.
China is believed to have already replaced human workers at about a quarter of its munitions factories. The robots are believed to be about five times as productive as humans.
Xu Zhigang, one of the program’s lead scientists, estimated that growth in munitions production could approach 200 percent. However, he denied that China was readying for war. [source]
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