Chinese PLA soldiers practice with FPV dronesClash Report Via TwitterChinas release of the DeepSeek chatbot has sent shockwaves through the U.S. stock market and beyond. The makers claim that the underlying DeepSeek-V3 model was trained for around $6m, a tiny fraction of the cost of rival U.S. systems, and with a tiny fraction of the computing power.This happened just after the U.S. had announced massive spending on AI infrastructure to build the sort of computing power which DeepSeeks makers say is no longer necessary. The launch has been described as Sputnik moment echoing events in 1957 when the Soviet Union shocked the world by taking a lead over America in the space race by putting the first satellite into orbit.Sputnik had obvious military implications: Americans were nervously aware of the Russian hardware now flying over their heads every ninety minutes. A Chinese lead in Large Language Models may look like a purely economic edge. But a new generation of AI-enabled drones could translate it into a military advantage.Putting An AI Crown On Drone SupremacyDJI Sky City, the global headquarters of the world's leading consumer drone marker DJI, in Shenzhen.VCG via Getty ImagesChina is the worlds largest producer of small drones. A single company, DJI of Shenzhen, commands an estimated 80% of the global consumer drone market. Although the company officially deplore military use of their product, DJI drones have become ubiquitous tools used by both sides in the war in Ukraine.MORE FOR YOULow-cost FPV drones, armed racing quadcopters, have become perhaps the most important single weapon in the ground war. These are assembled locally but many or most of the parts come from China.At present, almost all drones are flown by remote control. Skilled FPV pilots can score remarkable successes: 25-year-old Tymofiy Orel was awarded the title Hero of Ukraine for destroying 42 Russian tanks and 44 armored personnel carriers among other vehicles.In the past year or so small drones have been equipped with increasing levels of AI. In particular, U.S. makers Auterion are supplying Ukraine with Skynode-S boards, computers the size of a credit card optimized for machine-learning apps, for example locking on to a target and automatically flying the best route. Ultimately this could turn every drone operator into a Tymofiy Orel.In an address to RUSI in October, former Ukrainian Defense Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi noted how quickly the technology has evolved.When robots entered the battlefield [in 2022], there was laughter from the Western press and local generals, he said. However, by 2024, technology, particularly Artificial Intelligence, began to play a significant role in warfare.The next year is expected to see increasing numbers of AI-enabled drones on the battlefield in Ukraine. There are a number of challenges, including packing enough computing power on a small drone to run AI applications at speed, and training machine-learning systems to run reliably and efficiently.This is just the sort of technology that China appears to have gained with DeepSeek.From Virtual World To BattlefieldLLMs like DeepSeek have surprising applications including drone warfareGetty ImagesDeepSeek is based on a Large Language Model (LLMs), a specific type of AI trained on large amounts of text and excels in carrying out conversations in natural language. This might seem a world away from the challenge of flying a drone, but researchers have shown how LLMs can enhance drone operations. Much of this research comes from China.A 2024 paper provides a good overview of the field -- Large Language Models for UAVs [Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles]: Current State and Pathways to the Future, was written by Shanghai-based researchers who describe how LLM integration with drones can improve autonomous data processing and rapid decision-making.While they carefully avoid specific applications, the authors note that LLMs are exceptional at identifying specific objects, individuals, vehicles, or activities in video streams or images, providing detailed insights crucial for military and civilian surveillance operations.This translates into an ability to carry out complex commands like see if there are any vehicles on the track by the river or "fly at low altitude to the enemy position and approach from the South. The LLM allows the drone to accept orders, then report what it sees in natural language: no moving vehicles on the track, one burned-out truck as previously reported or there was no fire from the enemy positions, but heat sources show they are occupied.As well as communicating with humans, LLMs enable the drones to talk to each other in natural language. A group of drones can share findings and co-ordinate their actions based on their mission, and distributing tasks without human intervention. A reconnaissance drone might assign attack drones to specific targets, then send follow-ups on the ones which are not destroyed.Another Chinese paper from 2024 takes this further Manned and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Cooperative Combat Framework Based on Large Language Models describes work using LLMs to make fully autonomous aerial unmanned combat aircraft a reality. They envision a single human fighter pilot with a collection of robotic wingmen who react at machine speed and communicate in human language. Again, they leverage the planning and problem-solving abilities of the LLM to make it an effective pilot, able to respond rapidly to unexpected situations. (It would be weird but not surprising if the drones imitated human practice and gave themselves callsigns like Maverick and Iceman).Leveraging The DeepSeek AdvantageDeepSeek is claimed to have specific advantages over other LLMs, in particular that it is resource-efficient, meaning it needs less computing power than other models and suitable for edge applications like drones rather than data centers. In addition, the developers claim to have achieved results rapidly with less training data than comparable models.We do not know how capable DeepSeek really is. But a powerful, low-cost system that can be deployed on drones would be a useful asset for China at this point.China has the worlds biggest drone manufacturing base. They have a wealth of information about using these drones in combat with the tactics and techniques worked out by Ukraine and Russia in a war which has cost them nothing. And they have recently being developing their own drone combat units equipped with what look like low-cost commercial drones.Add LLM capability to the mix and China seems to hold all the cards for building an unbeatable drone force. Warfare is becoming increasingly a matter of drone vs drone. In the long run, the software may turn out to be the deciding factor as victory will go to the side with the smartest drones.