hello everyone today I will be talking about China's new drone carriers I'm talking about
two ships they're both mini aircraft carriers of sorts that can launch and recover small uavs as
well as surface and underwater Vehicles they are both fairly small ships at least compared to the
typical aircraft carrier the first of the two vessels is a catamaran ucav carrier as you can
see in the left hand side photo the ship's name is unknown at least I was not able to find out UCAV
stands for unmanned combat aerial Vehicles so the ship is designed for operating aerial drones and
these are for military purposes the second vessel is named the Zhu Hai Yun which you can see in the
right hand side photo it looks much more like a typical ship than an aircraft carrier this is a
civilian ship built to conduct research but as we shall see can have potential military applications
it is designed to accommodate a mix of uavs unmanned surface vehicles and underwater
drones one special thing about this ship is that it is supposed to be able to operate
autonomously without human inputs at least in the open ocean we'll talk about this later
let's start with the catamaran drone carrier as can launch and recover small aerial Vehicles
the purpose of the ship appears to be for Naval training Drilling and exercises basically how it
works is that the drones on the ship are supposed to simulate incoming threats from the enemy for
example incoming anti-ship missiles these are done to facilitate Naval exercises for Chinese
Naval warships the warships participating in the exercise can then decide how to handle the pretend
threats the Chinese military News Channel the cctv7 called ship a Navy experimental training
ship the name of the ship remains unknown at the stage she was launched in May 2021 and appears
to be operational by the end of 2022 according to reports by the military News Channel the cctv7 the
photo you can see on the screen right now shows the launch of the ship from that you can give
a sense of the size of the ship and if you look closely enough you can see a cartoon shark Motif
on the side of the hull alluding to its Naval purpose however a model of the ship was already
seen in the 2021 zhuhai air show in September of that year providing a glimpse into how the ship
might function once it enters service I'm going to show you several images of the ship from the
2021 zhuhai air show they are of a good quality in the first photo you can see a completed ship with
two flight decks one front and one aft the large flight deck in front of the superstructure shows
five landing pads for rotary drone helicopters in front of the helipad there are two reels for
anchor cables based on recent footages released by Chinese media this configuration of the front
flight deck and the model appears to be correct it says representative of the real ship the large
flight deck in the front might provide room for additional facilities such as catapults
or other launchers for fixed Wing drones including those designated as targets as for the helicopter
drones themselves the too high display included a double rotor drone associated with this catamaran
training ship based on recently released footage by the CCTV a drone bearing this resemblance was
indeed deployed on the ship it is very small and certainly much smaller than any manned helicopter
in the photo you can clearly see a Long Bar underneath the Drone and this is attached to
some sort of signal emitter on the end of the bar on both ends the Drone can potentially use
these devices to send out signals mimicking the signature of various kinds of missiles or even
electronic warfare attacks or other threats for the purpose of Naval drills in this photo we can
clearly see the rear flight deck of the ship which is not marked as of yet the rear Flight
Deck can provide ample space for landing actual piloted helicopters for example for the purpose
of transporting supplies exchanging personnel and so on the rear Flight Deck can of course be used
to operate more drone helicopters alternatively this would be the perfect place to install small
catapults or static launchers to support the operation of fixed Wing aerial drones it could
also carry recovery mechanism for receiving the drones possibly through arrested Landing the
possibilities are endless unfortunately the CCTV has not released any footages of the rear Flight
Deck so its purpose remains unconfirmed another feature I want to draw your attention to is the
ridiculously tall tower in the middle of the superstructure in fact the height of this Tower
is simply extreme obviously the tower supports all sorts of electronic antenna domes including radar
communication devices between the ship and the drones and data sharing links with other ships
the sheer Heights of the tower provides very good supporting structure for placing electronic
systems relying on the line of sight for example radar systems obviously because the Earth is
curved the higher your radar is placed the further you can see additionally putting the communication
links between the ship and the Airborne drones atops such a high tower can improve the
reliability of the network this makes it easier to control a large number of Airborne drones at the
same time aside from the ship and the drones you can clearly see in the same display what appears
to be an aircraft carrier on Rails and this is actually the model of a moving Target helping the
PLA Navy practice anti-ship capabilities according to satellite images a pretend vessel that can move
on Rails has been set up in the xinjiang province in Northwestern China according to analyst it
is basically one giant moving targets helping the PLAN and the PLA Rocket force with targets
practice this is an area that has been used in the past for Chinese ballistic missile test including
anti-ship ballistic missiles although the purpose of these life-size warship models May well be
to support the testing of PLA electronic warfare systems and kinetic weapons the inclusion of the
model of the moving targets at the zuhai air show alongside the catamaran drone carrier showed the
pla Navy is dead serious about testing its weapons and drilling its forces anyway back to the ship
so just quickly summing up the ship's main missions the Drone carrier is a centerpiece
of Naval exercises in the future especially when practicing defense against incoming threats the
drones launched by the carrier can pretend to be a variety of aerial threats such as enemy drone
swarms high volume anti-ship saturation attacks and electronic warfare attacks these are done for
the purpose of facilitating Naval Combat exercises this helps the pla Navy to practice using the
weapons they have available to defend their ships and to inform the research and developments of new
Naval countermeasures and to refine existing countermeasures against future threats this
should be potential secondary functions for the carrier as well the naval drones launched
by the ship can engage in reconnaissance and surveillance submissions functioning
as Expendable scouts the large helicopter landing deck can be used to deliver supplies
vertically to forces operating on land especially during amphibious operations in the early stages
the main purpose however remains to operate unmanned aerial combat drones primarily for Naval
training purposes but could also be for Recon and offensive purposes to a limited extent the war in
Ukraine demonstrated that unmanned systems and electronic warfare will play a crucial role in
the future of warfare including Naval Warfare the second ship I want to talk about is the Zhu Hai
Yun or literally the Zhu Hai Cloud this is the autonomous drone carrier I was talking
about earlier capable of unmanned navigation in the open ocean she is not part of the PLA
Navy the Zhu Hai Yun is a civilian drone carrier for maritime research purposes and ocean surveys
she is owned by the Southern Ocean science and engineering Guangdong laboratory which is part of
the Sun Yatsen University the laboratory's goal is to survey in underwater and above water area
50 nautical miles in diameter using a network of our main systems the Zhu Hai Yun is a Mothership
for sensor-equipped air surface and underwater research and monitoring vehicles she was built
by the Huangpu Wenchong Shipyard in Guangzhou a subsidiary of the China State shipbuilding
Corporation construction started in July 2021 with keel-laying and she was launched in May 2022
the Zhu Hai Yun is made out of aluminum she has an aluminum Hull with a length of 88 meters in
a beam of 14 meters displacement is 2200 tons so she is by no means a big ship maximum speed is on
the low side of 18 knots but do remember she is not a naval ship so does not require high speed
she relies on a diesel electric propulsion system using three
diesel generators to produce electricity which is in turn used to power the ship
she has an emergency backup battery in case something goes wrong with the power plant
she has two Azimuth pod thrusters which are Marine propellers placed in pods that can be rotated they
give the ship better maneuverability than a fixed propeller and rudder system she has two A-frames
allowing over the side operation of unmanned surface vehicles at the rear of the ship an aft
winch is installed and this is used to deploy both manned submersibles and unmanned underwater drones
now let's talk about the Zhu Hai Yun's autonomous artificial intelligence system it is called the
intelligence ocean stereo observing system the ship is the center point of a network of unmanned
observation platforms for the Guangdong science and engineering laboratory while a human crew is
likely needed to Traverse busy areas like a port the navigation of waters in the open ocean can be
automated and can be done without human assistance the autonomous AI system also helps with energy
management aboard the ship an AI energy management system controls the diesel engines the power
generators and the backup batteries helping the ship to regulate energy consumption and
electricity generation depending on operational requirements at the time so the Zhu Hai Yun can
be said to be the world's first autonomous drone carrier albeit for civilian usage as opposed to
Naval use as one would otherwise expect finally let's talk about some of the potential military
applications of a ship like the Zhu Hai Yun the Zhu Hai Yun is a civilian research vessel first
and foremost with uses a maritime conservation and disaster prevention but she could have military
applications as well or other future ships like her could well have military applications firstly
the mothership could coordinate swarms of unmanned surface vessels Chinese military
firms are known to be developing unmanned surface vessels for Naval Warfare Yunzhou Tech a leading
developer of unmanned surface Vehicles revealed six surface drones in late 2021 it uses a dynamic
networking technology to allow swarms of drone ships to engage hostile Targets in a coordinated
manner without the need for manual control in 2018 Yunzhou Tech demonstrated a 56-boat swarm
of unmanned vessels for various conflict control and resolution purposes the Zhu Hai Yun or future
vessels like her could potentially in theory acts as a Mothership for swarms of unmanned and drones
secondly Gathering underwater navigation data are crucial for safe submarine operations charting the
underwater geography is critically important for China's submarine forces as the incidents
involving the USS Connecticut's highlights highly accurate underwater navigation data is critically
important for helping the submarine to avoid undersea obstacles especially submarine mountains
in fairly shallow parts of the ocean an autonomous ocean survey vessel like the Zhu Hai Yun can
provide accurate charting on the Topography of the seabed as a result Chinese submarines
would be able to improve Mission planning and navigational flexibility taking potentially many
different paths to improve Mission Effectiveness in terms of submarine drones Chinese firms have
developed underwater drones able to fire torpedoes the Zhu Hai Yun or future ships
like her can coordinate submarine drones to attack enemy warships with heavy Torpedoes
unlike manned submarines the submarine drones would be relatively Expendable and can take
high risk in tracking down and destory valuable enemy Capital ships even sacrificing themselves
in the process a large number of aerial drones or unmanned surface vessels can conduct wide
areas surveillance and reconnaissance to find adversary vessels like an aircraft
carrier for example which can then be attacked by land-based anti-ship missiles the unmanned
aerial Vehicles acting as Expendable Scouts would not need to worry about being shot down by enemy
Fighters they can do as much surveillance and reconnaissance as the PLA Navy's heart content
and that's all from me folks on China's autonomous drone aircraft carriers if you like to learn
more about the five most dangerous Chinese Navy combat drones please watch this video right here