Units of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) have recently organized innovative joint operational training to boost their combat capacities.
At a training range in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, a live-fire drill was carried out in the past several days. At the drill, as the command was issued at the crack of dawn, the various units of the firepower group executed a mechanized formation to complete a battlefield maneuver spanning nearly 100 kilometers.
During the maneuver, the exercise commanders introduced unexpected scenarios to simulate real combat conditions, prompting each unit to implement their corresponding plans for defense, reconnaissance, and counterattack, successfully handling these situations. Upon reaching the designated operational area, each unit quickly secured their shooting positions, loaded ammunition, and completed their preparations for the fire mission.
"During the exercise, our rocket artillery unit must not only complete fire coverage tasks for long-range targets independently but also closely coordinate with the ground artillery unit. In the systematic collaborative operations, we'll build a three-dimensional firepower network through dynamic adjustment of firing parameters and sharing of target information to effectively shorten concerted response time," said Yang Jinyao, a soldier from a Xinjiang Military Command brigade.
Meanwhile, the ground-to-air missile unit has got ready for missile launches, using air situation information provided by the early warning network of radar reconnaissance.
As simulated enemy planes were approaching the position, the missile unit tracked the targets in real time. When the targets are within the striking range, the missiles were launched, successfully hitting them with precision.
"[We] shared air situation information in real time and made dynamic adjustment to deployment spacing and interceptions to ensure seamless connectivity between short-range low-altitude and medium- and long-range air striking. This effectively created a comprehensive air defense network and significantly enhanced our ability to counter multi-directional and multi-altitude aerial threats in field conditions," said Wang Guoquan, another soldier.
As the drill entered the comprehensive assessment phase, the command center had to efficiently allocate firepower, coordinate various artilleries to conduct synchronized strikes against different targets. Under unified command, each artillery unit independently completed the entire process from receiving orders to executing the fire mission. "This live-fire drill focused on evaluating the collaborative capacities of multiple arms. It encompassed the entire operational chain of 'reconnaissance, control, strike, assessment, and support.' It verified the attack precision of the fire control system and warheads at a maximum range and comprehensively assessed the combat capabilities of different services, as well as the ability of unit commanders to coordinate and make collaborative decisions," said Zhang Daokai, a soldier.
Chinese army conducts real combat-oriented training to boost combat capabilities
Honor's humanoid robot, Lightning, which swept the 2026 Beijing E-Town Humanoid Robot Half-Marathon on Sunday, is a natural extension of years of accumulation in consumer electronics technology, said its developers.
A leading smart device provider in China, Honor independently developed the model, which dominated the podium at the event as it was used by all three teams whose autonomous navigating robots ran the fastest times.
At the Honor factory in Pingshan District in Shenzhen City, south China's Guangdong Province, where robotics engineers developed Lightning. They said the robot's body design incorporates a simulation system that, through artificial intelligence algorithms, can iterate nearly 30,000 design schemes of varying sizes over three months. Complete and mature systems are also in place for battery, communication, and reliability verification.
"We built a simulation lab from scratch. For the robots, we digitize the entire design and put it into a computer. We have our own material library, which can meet the force, thermal, and chemical property demands for each component, under different environments and speeds. We've accumulated about 1000 kinds of materials. For example, if there's a risk with the robot's neck, we just need to change the material code from 001 to 002. Now, through our simulations, we only need one day to perform parallel calculations on 10 different designs, before creating a mold and verifying it in the lab," said Li Zheng, a senior engineer at Honor.
An autonomous robot capable of completing a half-marathon involves a complete industry chain, with core components including high-precision sensors, LiDAR, motors, operating systems, and control algorithms. The development of robotic marathoners have driven an increasing number of component enterprises to get involved.
Manifold, a tech firm established by newly-graduated PhDs, has developed a 3D spatial memory module, which can model an environment in real time and transform it into images that robots can understand. They said several robots running the half-marathon this year adopted their solution.
"Our device can operate within a one-kilometer tunnel with an error margin of only tens of centimeters. For robots, especially in the absence of GPS, this allows them to accurately determine their location. The underlying technology is a multi-sensor fusion technology that we developed in-house," said Qin Youming, CEO and founder of Manifold.
The Beijing Humanoid Robotics Innovation Center set up a training camp for the marathon event. Many university students came a month ahead of the event to develop and debug their technologies and algorithms based on open-source robot bodies, databases, and training platforms.
"These high-quality databases and highly open-source control algorithms are actually very helpful to us. We no longer need to build the house from the ground up, but can skip the most basic part," said Sun Jingyu, a student from Shandong University.
"Through this racing event, I believe we can make our robots more reliable and stable, while also supporting high-dynamic, high-load movements. This is crucial for robots' future application in both industrial, commercial and domestic scenarios," said Guo Yijie, head of the innovative humanoid department and the Marathon project of Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center.
Engineers share development story behind Beijing humanoid half-marathon champion model
