The Chinese navy has launched an amphibious assault ship which will double up as a drone carrier, integrating the battleship with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), a Chinese naval official said.
China’s newly launched Type 076 amphibious assault ship will play a key role in boosting uncrewed combat capabilities, a navy commander has said in the first official acknowledgement of the warship’s widely speculated role as a drone carrier.
People’s Liberation Army (PLA) naval commander Chi Jianjun said efforts to integrate uncrewed or UAV systems into military training were already underway across the fleet, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Monday.
Chi is commander of the PLA’s large destroyer, the domestically built Type 055 stealth guided-missile destroyer Nanchang.
The warship marked its fifth anniversary in service on Sunday.
In comments underscoring the growing role of drones and attack robots on the battlefield, Chi said: “It’s not just us destroyers. Aircraft carriers, the newly launched Type 076, the earlier Type 075 [amphibious assault ship], and other vessels are and will all be involved. Uncrewed operations are an undeniable trend in modern warfare.”
China currently has two aircraft carriers in operation- the Liaoning, a refit of the Soviet-era ship commissioned in 2012 and Shandong, an indigenously built 2nd aircraft carrier commissioned in 2019.
China’s third aircraft carrier Fujian, which is larger than the two carriers with a displacement of 80,000, is currently undergoing trials.
