China’s PLA sets up new military academy colleges for AI, drones and discipline

China has set up several new institutions at military academies to train specialists in hi-tech and discipline inspection as the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) works towards its centennial modernisation goals.

The College of Unmanned and Intelligent Engineering, the College of Combat Support NCOs (Non-Commissioned Officers) and the College of Equipment Support NCOs were established within the PLA Army Engineering University on Wednesday.

On the same day, the National Defence University (NDU), the PLA’s highest academy, formally inaugurated the College of Discipline Inspection, Law and Politics at its Xian campus in Shaanxi province.

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The PLA AEU, formed in 2017 during President Xi Jinping’s massive military reform, is tasked with training engineering and technical personnel as well as command officers for the PLA Ground Force.

The establishment of the College of Unmanned and Intelligent Engineering at the PLA Army Engineering University highlights the military’s growing emphasis on uncrewed systems and artificial intelligence.

It coincided with US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s announcement on the same day of plans to establish a new four-star Autonomous Warfare Command to accelerate the development and deployment of drones, AI and robotic systems across the US military.

The creation of the two new NCO colleges – focused on training career soldiers with specialised technical and operational skills at the grass-roots level – underscores the PLA’s efforts to build and retain a more professional military workforce.

NDU’s College of Discipline Inspection, Law and Politics was restructured based on the university’s Political College at the Xian campus. The university said missions for the new college included professional training for military discipline inspectors, rule-of-law literacy training for commanders, postgraduate education and military vocational education in relevant specialities, as well as courses on Yanan revolutionary history.

The college has been established against the backdrop of a sweeping anti-corruption campaign within the PLA.

Numerous senior military officials have been removed in recent years, including five of the seven serving CMC members, with further investigations ongoing.

“[The college] will firmly shoulder the significant responsibility of cultivating personnel in discipline and law, vigorously foster a clean and upright environment, and comprehensively pioneer a new phase of development,” NDU political commissar Xia Zhihe said at the inauguration ceremony on Wednesday.

The joint logistics university did not give further details about the new colleges and institute in its announcement.

After the Joint Logistics Support Force became a service branch of the PLA in 2016, the university was formed in 2025 through the merger of PLA Ground Force’s Logistics Academy and the Military Transport University, including the latter’s affiliated Automobile Cadet College.

In its initial undergraduate admission last autumn, the university offered 21 majors – including traditional specialisations such as financial management, auditing, logistics management and military energy engineering – as well as more hi-tech programmes, such as national defence engineering and its intelligentisation, uncrewed equipment engineering and intelligent transport engineering.