New Delhi: China’s CCTV released a video on Friday showing the PLA’s KVD002 armed reconnaissance drone carrying out a live-fire strike on a moving naval target off China’s southeastern coast, Global Times reported. The footage was part of “Victory,” a documentary produced to mark the 99th anniversary of the PLA’s founding.
According to the state-run Global Times, the drone unit was ordered into action after an unidentified unmanned surface vessel was detected during a joint military exercise, and at least 13 drones appeared in the same frame during the operation. The KVD002 is the PLA’s first armed reconnaissance drone, capable of striking air defence systems, armoured targets and fortifications, as well as working with helicopters or operating independently.
Global Times also reported a personal account from the operation. PLA member Zhao Lichuan described how the target vessel’s fast movements made it hard to distinguish from waves on camera, causing the drone’s automated targeting to fail, so he switched to manual control and guided the missile to a successful hit with a three-minute countdown to strike.
A Chinese military expert, Song Zhongping, was quoted as saying that live-fire targeting of moving maritime targets off China’s southeastern coast shows the PLA’s high level of combat readiness and that this capability is meant to safeguard China’s southeastern waters, particularly the Taiwan Strait.
Why Taiwan sees it as a threat
Global Times noted this is not new territory for the drone. Under its earlier name, CH-4, it likely already took part in patrols and exercises around Taiwan since 2022, as identified at the time by Taiwan’s defence authority.
Beijing frames the drone’s capability as defensive, meaning that it is a way to “safeguard” waters it claims as its own, including the Taiwan Strait. Taipei sees it differently. Taiwan’s government has repeatedly characterized this kind of drone activity near the island as military pressure and a rehearsal for a potential blockade, part of what it calls Beijing’s broader grey-zone coercion campaign. A drone shown tracking and destroying a moving vessel at sea reads, from Taiwan’s perspective, as a direct signal aimed at its navy and coast guard, not just a routine readiness drill.
While Beijing calls it defensive readiness, Taipei calls it an escalating threat.