How China Leads the Drone Aircraft Carrier Race Ahead of Western Powers

Image Credit: Standard-Examiner

China has built an aircraft carrier specifically designed for drones. Recent satellite images reveal the approximately 500-foot vessel at a shipyard on the Yangtze River near Shanghai, highlighting China’s rapid advancements in naval technology.

This new drone carrier is not the first of its kind. Last year, Turkey commissioned an assault ship equipped for a drone air wing, and Iran began converting a tanker into a drone carrier. Despite being the third country to venture into this new domain, China is significantly ahead of the United States and other Western powers, who are still focusing on integrating drones with existing manned aircraft carriers.

The effectiveness of this new approach remains to be seen. However, it’s notable that Turkey, Iran, and China are pioneering this naval concept. If drone carriers prove to be functional and efficient, these nations could deploy them on a large scale first, leaving others to catch up.

China’s new drone carrier, unnoticed by foreign media until nearly two years after construction began, underscores the vast scale of Chinese naval shipbuilding. The vessel is roughly the size of a World War II escort carrier but with a wider deck, capable of accommodating numerous fixed-wing drones or hundreds of small quadcopters.

Any ship with a large flat deck can theoretically launch and recover drones. However, the true test of these new carriers will be their control systems. Despite advancements in artificial intelligence for drone navigation, most drones still require human operators for launching, landing, and weapon deployment. Moreover, drones relay large amounts of data that need thorough analysis, often by human experts.

The success of the Turkish, Iranian, and Chinese navies in solving these control challenges will determine their ability to wage war with robotic air wings. Drones have several advantages over manned planes: they are relatively inexpensive, deployable in large numbers, and disposable. Losing a drone or even hundreds of drones in combat incurs only monetary costs, without the loss of human life or the political consequences associated with downed manned aircraft.

However, the practical implementation of drone carriers is not without potential issues. Operating delicate drones in harsh marine environments, maintaining a high sortie rate to justify the cost of a drone-only carrier, and managing radio frequencies as multiple drones launch simultaneously could present significant challenges. Additionally, without high-performance fighter aircraft for protection, these carriers may be too vulnerable in combat situations.

It’s important to note that the US Navy has opted to integrate new drones with existing manned carrier planes in combined air wings rather than develop a new class of drone-only carriers. The US Navy’s supercarriers are stable platforms in all weather conditions, capable of launching hundreds of sorties daily, and possess advanced communication systems with massive bandwidth. These carriers, protected by numerous supersonic fighters, are among the most secure warships ever built.

Ultimately, the current era of drone experimentation may demonstrate that the US Navy’s approach of integrating drones with existing carriers was the correct strategy. Alternatively, Turkey, Iran, and China might prove that drone-specific carriers are viable, giving them a significant head start. If this proves to be the case, Western powers will need to develop their drone carriers from scratch.

This story was originally featured on The Telegraph