China has taken a more than interesting leap in unmanned naval warfare: at the Dubai Airshow 2025, it presented the Wing Loong X, an ASW (Anti-Submarine Warfare) drone that, according to its manufacturer, it is capable of operating completely autonomous to detect, track and attack submarines.
How do you get it? The short answer is thanks to various technologies. The first of these are advanced sensors and sonobuoys. One of the central weapons of the drone is its ability to deploy sonobuoys, those small floating sensors that listen to sound underwater. The Wing Loong X can release these buoys during its flight, and then analyze the acoustic data on board, thanks to its AI system.
Here we enter with the second technology, precisely AI. The Wing Loong X not only listens to the signal from the sonobuoys, it also interprets what they capture. The drone would be designed to process acoustic signals, identify patterns that match underwater signatures, and classify potential targets. If the data strongly points to a submarine, the plan is for it to even attack itself.
Which leads us to the next one technological aspect: anti-submarine weapons. In addition to collecting data, the Wing Loong X can carry light anti-submarine torpedoes. This means that it is not just a surveillance drone, but an offensive platform.
And finally, we have additional sensors. To function in a full ASW mission, the drone incorporates a maritime radar, electro-optical/infrared sensors and a magnetic anomaly detection system (MAD, Magnetic Anomaly Detector). The latter is key: it can detect changes in the Earth’s magnetic field caused by large submerged objects, such as a submarine.
According to Chinese media, the Wing Loong Taking into account its great power, one of the controversies it faces is its lethal automation capabilities: Allowing an autonomous system to decide to launch torpedoes is a very sensitive ethical line. There are those who criticize that AI has so much decision-making power without direct human supervision.
The Wing Loong X is more than a drone: it is an autonomous submarine hunter. It represents a dangerous and fascinating convergence between AI, military aeronautics, and unmanned naval warfare. If its capabilities are real, as claimed, it could change how China projects its maritime power and how it dominates the depths.