THE United States claims its arch superpower rival China is poised to become the world leader in unmanned military aircraft with up to 42,000 pilotless aircraft aloft by 2023.

According to the United States Defense Department’s latest report on China’s military build-up the “Middle Kingdom” will spend more than $10 billion on land and sea based unmanned aircraft.

These will include fixed wing and rotary aircraft to conduct surveillance, attack and even air combat missions.

“The acquisition and development of longer-range UAVs will increase China’s ability to conduct long-range reconnaissance and strike operations,” the Pentagon report says.

Three of the systems being developed by China — the Yilong, Sky Saber and Lijian — are capable of launching precision strike missiles.

According to a US Naval Intelligence report the People’s Liberation Army (Navy) — the PLA(N) — would most likely emerge as the most prolific user of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).

“In addition to land based systems the PLA(N) is also pursuing ship-based UAVs as a supplement to manned helicopters,” the report says.

“To date we have observed the PLA(N) operating the Austrian Camcopter S-100 rotary wing UAV from several surface combatants.”

In 2013 China revealed that it was developing four new types of UAVs including the Yilong and Lijian which look very similar to US built aircraft such as the General Atomics Reaper and the Northrop Grumman X-47B carrier based Unmanned Air Combat Vehicle (UCAV).

The Lijian, also known as “sharp sword”, is a stealthy flying wing design that first flew in November 2013 and is very similar to the X-47B that has been operated from a US aircraft carrier.

China is notorious for stealing and copying ideas and even military blueprints and it operates a massive cyber warfare department to conduct such activities.

The Pentagon report also warned that China’s military modernisation had “the potential to reduce core US military technological advantages.”

UAV expert at RMIT University in Melbourne David Schaefer, who published a report on China’s drone build-up earlier this year, said the US assessment was probably exaggerated and he doubted that China would ever have 42,000 UAVs.

“The 42,000 figure is probably unrealistic especially as the limitations of drone technology become more apparent to the Chinese,” Mr Schaefer said.

He said the major impediment to drone development was cyber warfare and protecting on board and design computer systems from cyber attacks.

The other key aspect, he said, was China’s obsession with intimidating other countries by mounting displays of military technology that didn’t actually work very well.

The Pentagon report also raised alarm bells about the scale of modernisation being undertaken by the People’s Liberation Army air force.

“The PLA air force is rapidly closing the gap with western air forces across a broad spectrum of capabilities from aircraft, C2, to jammers, to electronic warfare (EW), to datalinks,” it said.