China Is Reportedly Building The World’s First Mothership For Giant Underwater Drones

Latest satellite images from Shanghai’s Hudong-Zhonghua shipyard have revealed that Beijing is building a massive ‘mothership’, which experts suggest might be used to launch underwater vehicles.

China could use it to aggressively back up its territorial claims in the entire Indo-Pacific region as it continues to advance in building its maritime capabilities and investing in new autonomous systems.

The ship’s size suggests that it can easily accommodate around 4 of Beijing’s large uncrewed vehicles, two of which are almost 115 feet, double the size of Orca in the US Navy, while the others are around 148 feet in length.

The mothership’s hull is around 670 feet long and 88.5 feet wide. Its stern has a wet well deck and a cradle that can lower into the water using 12 vertical jack-up arms.

It would likely accommodate a payload  over 10,000 nautical miles; however, it will likely be launched after two years.

Naval experts suggest that China has been developing autonomous underwater platforms to deploy sensors, payloads, and drones at a large scale, enabling its ships to remain at sea for longer periods of time.

The development comes as China has been getting into frequent conflicts with its neighbours, especially the Philippines, over contestations in the disputed South China Sea, which Beijing claims in its entirety. China has neither confirmed nor denied the news of this new mothership capable of launching at least four drones.

Not only are underwater drones cheaper to build and operate, but they also offer other advantages such as accessibility in shallow waters, crevices, and places where larger submarines cannot reach.

Since they are operated remotely without a crew, there is no risk to human life. They can remain hidden, detect submarines and their acoustic signatures, and create a massive library of data that can be used later when they encounter a threat from an enemy, helping form and shape naval strategies in the long term.

Using the mothership to launch and retrieve these drones means they could expand their reach and help China assert control over disputed islands and shoals, though an international tribunal has already declared these claims illegal.