A Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy base recently conducted a vessel degaussing exercise that, for the first time, incorporated AI, significantly improving operational efficiency, according to an official media report on Sunday.
Degaussing enhances a vessel’s stealth capabilities by reducing its magnetic signature, with an expert saying that AI could accelerate the degaussing process and contribute to the generation of combat capabilities.
The exercise, conducted by the base under the navy of the PLA Northern Theater Command, saw an emergency degaussing support unit rapidly moving out with equipment such as magnetic detectors, positioning devices and degaussing wires, to degauss a “damaged warship” during a simulated emergency, China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Sunday.
The vessel simulating the “damaged warship” in the exercise is a Type 054A guided missile frigate, the CCTV report shows. Dozens of Type 054A frigates are in service with the PLA Navy.
Exposed magnetic signatures can trigger magnetic sea mines. Degaussing restores a vessel’s magnetic stealth, reducing the risk of such attacks, CCTV noted.
Regular degaussing is essential, as vessel magnetism gradually accumulates due to long-term magnetization through the earth’s magnetic field and the machines’ operations, according to a report by the PLA Daily on Saturday.
Degaussing enables warships to achieve magnetic stealth, protecting them from threats of magnetic weapons and avoiding magnetic detections, according to the PLA Daily.
This recent exercise marked the first operational deployment of an AI-assisted decision-making system, which increased work efficiency by 60 percent, CCTV reported.
Song Zhongping, a Chinese military affairs expert, told the Global Times on Sunday that degaussing has long been a critical focus among navies. One of the indicators is that, the faster the degaussing process can be, the stronger the fleet’s combat capabilities can become.
The use of AI is expected to optimize and accelerate the degaussing process by identifying optimal algorithms and verifying degaussing outcomes, Song explained.
According to CCTV, a group of new recruits with an average age under 23 participated in the drill.
“The real battlefield will not give us any chances for trial and error. When the degaussing current was connected, I truly felt that my combat position was on the front line,” Liu Yunhe, a young member at the naval base, said in the CCTV report.
Twelve new recruits were assigned to the emergency support unit to train in high-risk scenarios, including emergency response drills, CCTV quoted Sun Hui, a senior officer at the naval base, as saying.
It showed that the base is shifting to a new model of support force cultivation, as new recruits are being trained and deployed at the same time, boosting the speed of combat capability generation by integrating them into core operational roles, Sun said.