Chinese navy commandos rode electric skateboards to a drone combat exercise disguised as birds, then left them in a pickup truck

• Chinese state television showed armed commandos practicing combat on electric skateboards.

• Navy special forces also sent drones designed to flap their wings like an eagle and a sparrow.

• The live-fire exercises were held to commemorate the 97th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.

Chinese special forces showed off electric skateboards, surfboards and other gadgets during a televised combat demonstration on Thursday.

Chinese military television broadcast artillery drills held at the Nanchang Infantry Academy in Jiangxi to mark the 97th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army.

In this television segment, several soldiers from the Jiaolong Commandos, an elite landing unit of the Chinese navy, rode jet-powered surfboards around a garden lake.

One of the commandos launched a winged drone resembling a sparrow.

Later, half a dozen commandos armed with assault rifles descended from the treeline on skateboards—they were electric, a state television narrator said.

As they sped down the asphalt road, one of the commandos at the front of the group held a drone designed to look like a giant eagle. The drone eventually flew away when he threw it into the air while steering a skateboard.

As they entered the target area, one of the soldiers released a handheld drone carried by four small propellers, which hit the wall and exploded.

The commandos rode skateboards around the field, dismounting to shoot at targets and throwing rockets.

Several of them then demonstrated an explosion in a plywood structure and retrieved a mannequin, which they placed on a pickup truck.

The entire team then gathered and drove away from the scene in a pick-up truck.

Other television demonstrations included the use of a jet pack similar to one Gravity Industries tested for the UK Royal Marines, a quadrocopter reconnaissance drone and a remote-controlled drone that ripped apart paper targets.

While they are not widely used by other major armies, personal electric vehicles are starting to appear in combat zones. Russian military bloggers recently reported that Russian soldiers in Ukraine are using electric scooters to silently travel between positions.

There have also been reports in Donbas of pro-Russian militias using motorcycles to avoid detection by drones.

The fighting in Ukraine has fueled global interest in cheaper and more versatile weapons, such as first-person view drones.

For example, the US Army in its 2025 budget requested $2.4 billion for the development of cheap drones.

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