‘Pew Pew’: The Chinese Companies Marketing Anti-Drone Weapons on TikTok

TikTok is now a marketplace for military drone jammers

A woman in pink trousers stands on an industrial rooftop, cheerfully firing a black, rifle-shaped device. "Jamming gun, good," she says in a TikTok video, flashing a thumbs-up. "Contact me!"

The video is part of a new, surreal trend on the platform. Chinese manufacturers are using TikTok to advertise and sell anti-drone equipment with clear military and security applications. They present tools of modern warfare with the breezy, direct-to-consumer style typical of the app.

Chinese factories advertise the tools of war

WIRED reviewed dozens of TikTok videos from accounts selling anti-drone gear. The products include gumdrop-shaped domes on tripods, large "jamming guns," and backpacks fitted with 12 antennas.

Captions are often in Chinese and English, with some including Russian or Ukrainian translations. One video, set to industrial house music, advertises a "9 band FPV anti drone jammer," a device used to block the radio and navigation signals that small drones rely on.

This marketplace has emerged as drones have become central to conflicts like the war in Ukraine. Both Russia and Ukraine are racing to expand domestic drone production, but much of their manufacturing still depends on Chinese components.

The global supply chain for drone warfare

Processors, sensors, cameras, and radio modules for drones on both sides of the Ukraine war are largely sourced from factories in and around Shenzhen, China. "Ukraine still relies heavily on major Chinese companies for cheap drones and drone parts," says Aosheng Pusztaszeri, a research associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Beijing has repeatedly tightened export controls on dual-use technologies since the war began. In September 2024, China expanded controls to cover key parts like flight controllers and motors.

Despite these restrictions, trade figures suggest Chinese drones continue to flow to the conflict zones through intermediaries. Official Chinese data shows only about $200,000 in drone sales to Ukraine in the first half of 2024, but the Ukrainian government estimates the value at closer to $1.1 billion. "That gap suggests fully assembled Chinese drones and drone components might enter Ukraine via third-party sellers," Pusztaszeri explains.

How the advertised jammers work

The products featured on TikTok appear to be a combination of detection and jamming equipment, according to University of Maryland professor Houbing Herbert Song. Jammers work by disrupting the signals drones use to operate.

• Some transmit radio waves at the same frequency a drone uses, causing it to lose contact with its operator.
• Others interfere with or "spoof" GPS navigation signals, tricking the drone about its location.

The videos typically don't explain the technical details. However, one company's website claims its jammers can interfere with multiple global navigation systems, including:

• America's GPS
• China's BeiDou (BDS)
• Russia's GLONASS
• The European Union's Galileo

Vague marketing for powerful technology

Most videos avoid explicit references to military use. One caption says a jammer is "suitable for drone defence in mining areas, oil depots, farms, and vehicle-mounted applications."

Song says this vague application-based description is uncommon in the field. "Typically we need to describe an anti-drone scenario in terms of distance, speed of the drone, size of drone swarms, and latency of drone detection," he says. He adds that the showcased products would not be able to counter large swarms of drones.

In another video, the same woman from the factory, now in a black blazer, addresses the camera in Chinese. "I am from the factory of anti-UAV equipment in China," she says. "The equipment can be placed indoors, outdoors, and in the car. Works 24 hours a day."

The result is a jarring blend of e-commerce and battlefield hardware, all streamed directly to a global audience on a platform built for viral dance trends and lifestyle hauls.