Chinese firms joined their global competitors at Eurosatory, the recently concluded arms fair, where the latest air defences were the centre of attention in a market made more important by the drone warfare seen in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Experts said China could anticipate sales from the Global South thanks to its cost efficiency, but geopolitical constraints would continue to bar it from US-allied countries that were looking for combat-proven and interoperable systems.

China’s largest ground-based arms maker, North Industries Group Corporation (Norinco) showcased its surface-to-air missile systems, including Sky Dragon 100 and Yitian II, as well as other anti-drone solutions such as its anti-air guns and laser weapons systems.

Chinese defence systems have gone to multiple markets, with the HQ-9, a long-range surface-to-air missile that can reach up to 260km (162 miles), reportedly sold to Azerbaijan, Egypt, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

In a rare instance of a Chinese weapon footprint in Europe, Serbia is operating four batteries of the FK-3, an export variant of the HQ-22 medium-range air defence system.

Surface-to-air missile air defence systems are hard to make, requiring a domestic industrial base for high-frequency radars and advanced missile interceptors, allowing only a handful of countries to export these systems.