China Accelerates Plans to Put Humanoid Robots on the Battlefield

China’s military research establishment is laying the groundwork for humanoid robots to move from experimental systems into eventual battlefield roles, with work accelerating across military universities, procurement programs and the defense industry.

The effort gathered pace in 2025 and 2026, with researchers focusing on perception, manipulation and training data while examining how humanoids could operate alongside troops.

The People's Liberation Army has not been shown to have deployed an armed humanoid with an operational unit. The machines remain energy-intensive and unreliable outside controlled settings.

But military institutions are already testing capabilities against battlefield requirements and purchasing technologies intended to bring robots closer to operational use.

From Demonstrations to Combat

The PLA Daily sharpened that direction shortly after last month’s World Humanoid Robot Games in China, where machines ran, boxed and danced.

The military newspaper called for researchers to speed the transfer of advanced technologies from laboratories to training grounds for robotic “combatants.”

Chinese military thinking extends beyond support functions.

A PLA Daily article published in July 2025 said humanoid missions could eventually shift “from supporting combat toward primary combat.”

It also examined circumstances in which a robot might be authorized to fire on a living target after human verification.

China’s Eastern Theater Command offered another depiction in December, releasing an AI-generated montage showing military robots, including humanoids and quadrupeds, overwhelming Taiwan’s defenses in a hypothetical conflict.

Urban Assault Plans

One military study has already outlined how robots could be incorporated into an assault force.

Researchers at the National University of Defense Technology’s test center in Xi’an described an urban operation in an August 2025 paper involving six “combat robots” distributed between two assault teams.

Humanoids, robot dogs, or unmanned vehicles would work with ground troops to clear an enemy-held building room by room and floor by floor.

The researchers modeled the force using equipment they projected could become available within five to 10 years.

The study did not specify the robots’ weapons, rules of engagement, or how they would respond to civilians.

Juo-Min Chou, a researcher at Taiwan's Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said better balance, perception and endurance could make humanoids useful inside buildings, tunnels and ships.

“Their two hands and two feet could, in theory, combine mobility, climbing and manipulation,” she said.

For reconnaissance and logistics missions requiring less complex movement, however, quadruped, tracked or wheeled machines would generally be cheaper and easier to deploy at scale, Chou said.

Preparing Robots for the Battlefield

Chinese military interest in humanoids began accelerating in 2024.

That year, NUDT and China’s Academy of Military Sciences held a defense-technology forum containing a session devoted to military applications for humanoid systems.

By June 2025, NUDT was testing battlefield-oriented tasks directly.

One university competition simulated “infiltration behind enemy lines”, requiring robots to enter an area, map it and identify targets.

Other scenarios included identity checks, discipline inspections and patrol duties at military facilities.

NUDT described the competition partly as preparation for humanoids to eventually “move toward the battlefield.”

Procurement activity followed.

The PLA issued a tender in May 2025 for a humanoid robot together with installation and technical training.

Four months later, a procurement notice carrying an NUDT email contact sought an “embodied humanoid robot intelligent perception and dexterous operation system.”

The documents provided limited technical detail, and it was not established whether the contracts were completed or which suppliers or robot models were involved.

In June 2026, the PLA allocated about $300,000 for a system designed to collect and label camera, radar and motion data for humanoids, including information about terrain they could cross.

The requirement points to military demand extending beyond robot hardware into the perception, manipulation and training systems needed for machines to operate in less controlled environments.

Defense Industry Moves In

By 2026, the push had expanded from military research institutions into China’s defense companies.

Norinco, the state-owned defense group, has developed a full-size humanoid called Fuxi.

Company material published in August described the robot as suitable for sentry duties, all-weather reconnaissance, intelligent patrols and hazardous assignments.

Fuxi can also work with Norinco’s teleoperation technology, allowing a human to control the robot remotely.

Remote operation offers one way around the difficulty of requiring humanoids to make every battlefield decision autonomously.

Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said humanoid robots were not yet practical battlefield systems.

“But in five to 10 years,” he said, “they could very well be.”

Commercial Scale Behind Military Research

China’s military effort is developing alongside a large domestic robotics industry.

Chinese manufacturers supplied about 95% of global humanoid shipments in 2025, according to BofA Global Research.

That industrial position gives the PLA access to a widening commercial ecosystem as military researchers work on battlefield-specific applications.

The interest also reflects a broader shift toward unmanned and autonomous military systems.

In the Russia-Ukraine war, semiautonomous drones using artificial intelligence for navigation and targeting have changed reconnaissance and strike operations, while robots have been used to transport supplies and recover casualties.

The U.S. Army is also examining humanoid military systems. It launched a competition last year for “militarized humanoid capabilities” that could eventually operate with soldiers.

Potential roles included reconnaissance, security, obstacle clearance, hazardous-material operations, and offensive and defensive missions in urban terrain.

Up to 10 finalists were scheduled to test their systems with U.S. military specialists this year, with as much as $1.25 million available in follow-on contracts.

Limits Remain

Humanoid robots still face substantial technical barriers.

Aaron Johnson, a professor of mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, said unpredictable battlefield conditions create challenges that controlled demonstrations do not reproduce.

Dennis Hong, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UCLA, said replacing people in dangerous environments remained a central argument for military robotics.

“Going where we don’t want humans to go is one of the most compelling reasons to develop robots in the first place,” he said.

Questions over autonomous use of force would become more significant if humanoids were eventually deployed without continuous remote control.

The laws of war require forces to distinguish between civilians and combatants and protect wounded or surrendering fighters from attack.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has warned that autonomous weapons could struggle to interpret surrender because the judgment can depend on context, behavior and intent.

China’s defense ministry said in March that weapons using artificial intelligence should remain under human control.

A Longer-Term Military Bet

Chinese researchers acknowledge that large-scale deployment remains some distance away.

Wang Yonghua, a researcher at China’s Academy of Military Sciences, wrote in November that humanoids still faced unresolved problems involving movement, perception and intelligence.

Widespread military use would require technical advances, lower manufacturing costs and industrial-scale production, he said.

If those barriers are overcome, Wang wrote, “humanoid robots will stream onto the battlefield.”