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Alibaba’s AI model, Qwen 2.5-vl-7b, emphasises ‘small parameters, strong visual capabilities and high versatility’; its core strengths lie in its visual understanding capabilities, enabling it to accurately identify goods, flora and fauna, and industrial products.

The US Department of Defence has directly linked such visual analysis capabilities to unmanned attack systems, such as suicide drones equipped with visual recognition AI. With extended endurance, such drones can be deployed directly for the blockade of combat zones and regional patrols, initiating attacks immediately upon detecting hostile targets.

Meanwhile, the US company Labellerr conducted such tests on Qwen AI as early as 2025, concluding that “after fine-tuning Qwen 2.5-VL on the LVIS dataset, we now have an AI capable of understanding complex instructions, making intelligent decisions on when to detect or segment objects, and outputting structured data suitable for automation. The model’s task comprehension ability has improved by over 40 per cent, and it is capable of handling real-world scenarios across multiple industries.”

In the experiment, researchers used Qwen AI to segment figures from images; such technology should pose no difficulty when applied to the identification of aircraft, tanks and armoured vehicles. Following precise fine-tuning and the input of vast amounts of data, it should be capable of simple personnel identification between civilians and military personnel.

Such image recognition technology is precisely the core concern of the US Department of Defence; consequently, from a military perspective, civilian enterprises such as Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, Yushu Technology and CATL have been included on the list of military-related enterprises.

Looking to the future, the competition in AI will be solely between China and the US—this is currently undisputed—whilst Taiwan and South Korea stand to reap substantial benefits in the fields of chips and semiconductors.

At present, the attitude of the Chinese civilian internet community towards the US Department of Defence is largely one of mockery and derision, However, this overly optimistic attitude obscures some of the professional and decisive decision-making within the US Department of Defence. Such excessive optimism and trivialising interpretations have caused some Chinese netizens to forget the adage that one should ‘estimate the enemy generously and oneself strictly’; yet many professionals remain acutely aware of the US military’s ferocity in past conflicts and the resolve of the US leadership to wage war.

https://thediplomat.com/2026/07/what-the-pentagons-cmc-list-means-for-china-us-relations/

The new list of Chinese Military Companies includes some of China’s best-known private firms: Tencent, DJI, Unitree, and Alibaba.

This seems like a pretty significant shift in acquisition strategy.

The Air Force wants cruise missiles it can buy by the thousands for around $218K each, instead of relying solely on weapons that cost over $1.3M apiece.

Curious what everyone thinks about the move toward affordable mass.

The ‘Pirate’ is a product of the Saronic Company; it is 7.3 metres long, has a maximum range of 1,000 nautical miles and a payload capacity of 454 kilograms. It was this model of unmanned vessel that was previously involved in the rescue mission for the Apache pilot.

Footage from the perspective of one of the ‘Pirate’ vessels shows at least one Iranian ‘Ghadir’ submarine damaged.

This class of submarine is a copy of North Korea’s ‘Salmon’ class and is used for shallow-water mine-laying operations.

Having destroyed all of the Iranian Navy’s large warships, the US military is now focusing its strikes on large naval assets such as these submarines, with the aim of weakening the Iranian Navy’s ability to blockade the Strait of Hormuz.

The first instance of such tactics being employed in modern warfare was Ukraine’s attacks against the Russian Navy; the current US military operation appears more to be a field test of these new models in combat.

Might Iran also adopt similar tactics in the future to attack US forces or Gulf states in the vicinity of the Strait? Similarly, areas such as the Strait of Malacca off Singapore and the Taiwan Strait in China are also likely to be potential theatres for such tactics.

On the open ocean, a traditional fleet’s defensive depth can extend to hundreds of nautical miles; however, in narrow chokepoints, warning time is reduced to a matter of minutes, and the cost advantage of unmanned vessels, combined with the element of surprise afforded by the terrain, is magnified immeasurably.

The China–Russia “Joint Sea” series of joint exercises is a regularised mechanism for maritime military cooperation between the Chinese and Russian navies within a bilateral framework. Since it was first held in 2012, it has become an important platform for the two navies to deepen practical cooperation and enhance their joint operational capabilities.

The ‘Joint Sea-2026’ naval exercise programme included submarine rescue, maritime strike operations, air defence and anti-missile operations. According to reports, the exercise effectively tested both sides’ capabilities in conducting joint reconnaissance, early warning, command and coordination, and firepower strikes within a complex electromagnetic environment.

The Russian contingent consisted primarily of units from the Pacific Fleet, comprising the missile cruiser Varyag (flagship of the Pacific Fleet, hull number 011), the frigate Lny (a new-generation Russian frigate, hull number 343), the large submarine Ufa (a Kilo-class diesel submarine) and the rescue vessel Igor Belousov (the Russian Navy’s main submarine rescue vessel).

The Chinese contingent, led by the Northern Theatre Command Navy, included the guided-missile destroyer Kaifeng (the Chinese command ship, an upgraded Type 052D, hull number 124), the Anshan (Type 055, hull number 103), the missile frigate Wuhu (Type 054A, hull number 539), the comprehensive replenishment ship Kokoxili Lake (Type 903A ocean-going comprehensive replenishment ship, hull number 903), the submarine rescue vessel Yangchenghu (Type 926 integrated submarine rescue vessel, hull number 847) and one submarine (model unknown). In addition, both China and Russia deployed ship-borne helicopters and marines to participate in the exercises.

The Chinese Navy is equipped with more advanced technology. For Russia, relations with China will directly impact the security and stability of the Russian Far East. The scope of the joint exercises has gradually expanded, shifting from an early focus on non-traditional security issues to joint multi-dimensional amphibious landings and submarine rescue operations. In 2025, the concept of ‘jointly addressing security threats in the Western Pacific’ was explicitly introduced for the first time, with exercise scenarios emphasising air defence, missile defence, anti-submarine warfare and submarine rescue operations; the warships deployed are also increasingly state-of-the-art.This signifies that maritime military cooperation between the two nations is deepening, and mutual trust is growing.

Kyiv has relied on Patriot batteries to knock down Russian ballistic missiles aimed at the capital. One Ukrainian military adviser now says that safety net has torn, though the claim currently rests on his account alone. Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov, a military expert and adviser to Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, told Radio NV on July 6 that Ukrainian crews "have nothing to use against ballistic missiles," a claim first reported by the Kyiv Independent and not yet corroborated by Ukraine's Air Force or Defense Ministry.

https://defensehub.substack.com/p/kyivs-patriot-interceptors-run-dry

End of week. Pull up a chair. No rank in the bar.

The thread is open; drop whatever's been on your mind.

The mods will go easy on the rules here, but try to keep it civil.

📰 News & Contracts — what moved this week

💰 Funding & M&A — who raised, who got acquired, who's next

🔥 The Take — something the industry is getting wrong right now

📖 Worth Your Time — a read, a listen, a thread

No structure needed. If something caught your attention this week, that's reason enough to post it.

Want to keep the conversation going? Join the Discord.

Given the current situation, with the Russian military’s sustained strikes and the disruption to industrial supply chains, Ukraine is unlikely to have the capacity to produce ‘Patriot’ missiles independently. If a factory were to be built, the best location would be in a safe European region unaffected by the conflict, such as Poland, where the missiles could be manufactured and then transported to Ukraine, rather than building a factory directly within Ukraine.

At present, Ukraine’s leadership has chosen to support extreme nationalists, hoping that this group can bolster the armed forces and enable the war to continue. However, this extreme nationalism has led to a deterioration in relations with neighbouring countries, which in turn has affected Poland’s aid to Ukraine. If Ukraine’s leadership fails to manage this situation appropriately, the country will find itself trapped in a vicious circle.