China is reportedly developing the world’s first twin-hull drone carrier in an attempt to modernise its navy and tighten its grip over the region.
Images revealed by Naval News showed a previously unreported drone carrier being built at the Jiangsu Dayang Marine shipyard, as well as two drone motherships, and several high-tech target barges.
The carrier-like vessel appears to be being built as a catamaran, which is an unusual design for an aircraft carrier.
Based on an analysis of the satellite imagery by J. Michael Dahm, a Senior Resident Fellow at the Mitchell Institute, experts have been quick to dub the new drone carrier Type 076.
H. I. Sutton, defence analyst for Naval News, said: “It is unusual in every respect. The hull is a widely spaced catamaran. While catamarans are often featured in aircraft carrier concepts because they allow a large deck area, no one has actually built one before.
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“Analysis of satellite imagery shows that the flight deck is very low. It appears unlikely there is a hangar deck below the flight deck. If there is, its ceiling is very low. Therefore, it does not appear designed to support high tempo or prolonged flight operations.”
China is notoriously secretive when it comes to military developments and so speculation is rife, but President Xi Jinping has previously declared military innovation and modernisation one of his key missions.
Sam Roggeveen, Director of the Australian think tank Lowy Institute’s International Security Program, emphasised the lack of information currently available about Type 076 but revealed a new capability it could have.
He told Newsweek: “Very little is known about this vessel, other than it appears to be quite modest in size. It might be a test platform rather than an operational vessel.
“Typically for such a ship, this would mean helicopters, but it is speculated that the Type 076 will have a unique new capability – the capacity to launch large drones using electromagnetic catapults.”
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If this turns out to be correct, the carrier will be equipped with the same modern launch system as other aircraft carriers the Fujian and the USS Gerald R. Ford.
There is also a staggering cost attached to a vessel of this kind. Though it has not yet been disclosed exactly how much the Type 076 will cost, the price tag attached to carriers such as the Gerald R. Ford class is upwards of $13.3 billion (£12 billion).
As well as the atypical catamaran design, the carrier is also smaller than regular ones – the flight deck is roughly one-third the length and half the width of a supercarrier.
Experts have argued that this could deepen global tensions with China as it gives the military the ability to deploy small carrier drones to far-off locations to target enemy assets.
Though there are still doubts about the intended use of the vessel, Dahm explained that it could allow the military to test drones eventually used on the Type 075.
