"Bee Shadow 2026" Opens: First Military-Wide Small and Micro Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Innovative Application Challenge

“蜂影2026”全军首届小微无人机创新运用挑战赛开赛

PLA Daily (解放军报) 24 June 2026

Summary

The CMC Equipment Development Department and Training Management Department opened 'Bee Shadow 2026' in Shijiazhuang on June 24, a three-day small and micro UAV competition hosted across 69 teams from units military-wide, organized through Army Engineering University, covering assembly, battlefield repair, tactical control, and networked employment. The event documents a PLA-wide effort to close the gap between UAV equipment fielding and operator-level proficiency — the explicit framing around 'resolving practical problems in operational employment from the equipment side' confirms that basic control, maintenance, and integrated employment remain uneven enough to require a dedicated competition cycle to drive standardization. The four-pillar structure (fly, modify, link, manage) extends a visible pattern of PLA competitions being used as a substitute training pipeline for emerging capabilities where doctrine and formal curricula have not yet caught up to hardware proliferation.

This is the first military-wide (全军) small and micro UAV innovative application challenge, explicitly named as such, hosted by the CMC Equipment Development Department and Training Management Department — signaling institutionalized, PLA-wide standardization of small and micro UAV tactical employment, repair, and network integration as a formal readiness priority.

Translation

Xinhua News Agency, Shijiazhuang, June 24 (Li Guoli, Xie Ben) — The "Bee Shadow 2026" First Military-Wide Small and Micro Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Innovative Application Challenge opened on the morning of June 24 in Shijiazhuang, Hebei.

The three-day challenge is hosted by the Central Military Commission Equipment Development Department and Training Management Department, co-organized by Army headquarters, and undertaken by the Army Engineering University. A total of 69 representative teams from units across the entire military are competing.

According to an introduction, the challenge is oriented toward using competition to drive development, drive training, and strengthen capabilities (以赛促建、以赛促训、以赛强能). It focuses on unmanned aerial vehicle assembly and debugging, battlefield repair, tactical control, and coordinated employment in realistic combat scenarios, with the aim of building an equipment technology application testing zone, an innovation incubator for tactics and training methods (战法训法), and a live-capability tempering exercise ground, thereby advancing the development of new-quality combat capabilities (新质战斗力). Driven by operational scenarios, the event design emphasizes "flying" — competing on basic control; "modifying" — competing on technical innovation; "linking" — competing on network integration and combined use; and "managing" — competing on management and sustainment. The goal is to resolve practical problems in operational employment from the "equipment side."

This reporter learned on site that the competition events each have distinct emphases and progressively increasing difficulty, with strong targeted relevance. For example: the "timed assembly, calibration, transport, and delivery" event focuses on knowing and managing equipment, with emphasis on testing "management" and "modification" capabilities, and primarily examines the level of mastery and application of unmanned aerial vehicle performance characteristics. The "low-altitude obstacle-crossing penetration" event focuses on precise control, with emphasis on testing "flying" and "managing" capabilities, and primarily examines precise control and rapid maintenance skills.

In addition, during the competition, activities were also conducted including repair skills demonstrations and observation and study of innovative achievements, providing demonstration instruction on the positioning, basic concepts, methods and means, and practical application of small and micro unmanned aerial vehicle repair and sustainment work.

Original Chinese

新华社石家庄6月24日电（李国利、解犇）“蜂影2026”全军首届小微无人机创新运用挑战赛，24日上午在河北石家庄拉开帷幕。为期3天的挑战赛，由中央军委装备发展部和训练管理部主办、陆军机关协办、陆军工程大学承办，共有来自全军部队的69支代表队同台竞技。据介绍，挑战赛着眼以赛促建、以赛促训、以赛强能，以实战场景下无人机组装调试、战场抢修、战术操控、协同运用为重点，打造装备技术运用试验区、战法训法创新孵化器、实战能力淬炼演练场，助推新质战斗力提升；以作战场景为牵引，课目设计上突出“飞”、比基础操控，突出“改”、比技术革新，突出“联”、比组网联用，突出“管”、比管理保障，旨在从“装备侧”破解作战运用面临的现实问题。记者在现场了解到，比赛课目内容各有侧重、难度渐次提升，有很强的针对性。如：“限时装调运投”课目侧重于知装管装，突出检验“管”和“改”的能力，重点考察对无人机性能特点的掌握运用水平。“低空越障突防”课目则侧重于精准操控，突出考察“飞”和“管”的能力，重点考察精准操控和快速维保技能。此外，比赛期间还开展了维修技能、创新成果观摩见学等活动，对小微无人机维修保障工作定位、基本理念、方法手段、实践应用等进行示范示教。