The proposal comes as Beijing seeks to neutralise the growing threat of low-cost drone swarms – the asymmetric weapon that has reshaped naval combat as traditional, human-led defences are increasingly vulnerable to uncrewed aerial and surface fleets.

Researchers from the China Coast Guard Academy’s ship command department and Dalian Maritime University’s Marine Electrical Engineering College have mapped out a future where islands are shielded by a seamless, multi-domain network of air, surface and underwater drones.

Details of their plan were highlighted in a paper published in July by the weapons industry and military technology journal Command Control & Simulation.

“In view of the current complex situation in the surrounding sea areas and the practical challenges of low-cost unmanned platform clustering defence, this paper studies the feasible path of uncrewed system defence,” the researchers wrote.