China is intent on becoming a competitive player in the global arms export industry. It already has the mass production capacity that most Western nations can only dream of. And it is now marrying that mass production to increasingly advanced products. 

China’s mass production capacity has the capacity to collapse global prices and make the world dependent on cheap, mass-produced Chinese products. In this case, China is diligently developing a highly mobile, lightweight 155mm towed howitzer that can easily be transported around the battlefield via helicopters or planes.

Known as the AH4, the new lightweight artillery pieces have increasingly turned up in conflict zones across the Global South, including Sudan and Yemen. These weapons, produced by Chinese state-owned arms manufacturer Norinco, weigh a relatively lightweight 4.5 tons. (The US-made M777 howitzer, the AH4’s rough equivalent, weighs around 4.2 tons due to the use of more advanced materials in its construction, but has a much higher price point as well.) The difference in weight is not significant, and the AH4 can be transported aboard

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