Chinese military shows off robot dogs of war’ in Cambodia drills

Cambodia China's military showed off its machine gun-equipped robot battle "dogs" on May 16 at the start of its biggest ever drills with Cambodian forces, as the US frets about Beijing's growing influence in the South-east Asian country.

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Cambodia has long been a staunch ally of China, receiving billions of dollars in investments, and Washington is growing increasingly concerned Beijing will use a Cambodian naval base it is upgrading in the Gulf of Thailand to expand its influence in the region.

More than 2,000 troops, including 760 Chinese military personnel, are taking part in the drills at a remote training centre in central Kampong Chhnang province and at sea off Preah Sihanouk province.

The 15-day exercise, dubbed Golden Dragon, also involves 14 warships three from China - two helicopters and 69 armoured vehicles and tanks, and includes livefire, anti-terrorism and humanitarian rescue drills.

reThe hardware on show included the so-called "robodogs" mote-controlled four-legged robots with automatic rifles mounted on their backs.