Inside China’s nascent, AI-powered military logistics system

“Before the troops and horses move, provisions and fodder must go first”—is the Chinese equivalent of Napoleon’s supposed saying that “An army marches on its stomach,” or Omar Bradley’s admonition “Amateurs talk strategy, but professionals talk logistics.” The modern PLA is taking these lessons to heart with a series of efforts to build a smart logistics system of the future, one that can supply its troops under fire in the next war.

As described in People’s Daily, the effort incorporates technologies that range from a multi-domain sensing web to an AI-enabled predictive planning that matches resources to cargo drones and tracked UGV mules. The PLA is already testing each in plateau, border, and coastal exercises.

The backbone of the PLA’s push for “smart joint logistics”  is the PLA’s Joint Logistic Support Force. Created in 2016, the JLSF runs theater-level joint support centers, depots, and information systems that combine Army, Navy, Air Force and Rocket Force sustainment into a single network and uses data from units, bases, and civilian contractors to build cross-theater sustainment plans.

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