China is building a "mother ship" capable of carrying underwater drones (photo)

China is building a "mother ship" capable of carrying underwater drones (photo)

China is building a "mother ship" to deploy underwater drones. The Independent reported this, citing satellite imagery.

The satellite images were provided by Vantor, showing the ship being built at the Hudong-Zhonghua shipyard in Shanghai. China has previously built large amphibious warships at the same shipyard.

One of them is 35 meters long, which is twice the size of the US Navy's Orca underwater vehicle, while the other is 45 meters long.

"The most plausible explanation is that this is an underwater mother ship designed for drones," naval historian and analyst H. I. Sutton told Naval News.

He said several satellite images were studied to determine the ship's likely mission. According to media reports, the hull of the amphibious ship is approximately 204 meters long and 27 meters wide. It has a special platform that can be lowered into the water using 12 vertical launch devices.

This makes the assumption that the ship will be used for "civilian or research purposes" implausible. Defense experts say the evidence from satellite imagery is reliable, but not enough to draw a definitive conclusion.

"Satellite imagery does not prove that China is building a dedicated mother ship for large underwater drones. But it makes this possibility increasingly difficult to dismiss," said Alessandro Arduino, an associate professor at the Royal United Services Institute.

He said China is developing a larger autonomous underwater platform capable of carrying more sensors, payload, and energy, thereby allowing it to stay at sea longer and perform missions at a lower cost. The Chinese military has neither confirmed nor denied that such a ship is being built.

"This is a new type of platform. I don't know of any other country that has a purpose-built submarine," said Aditya Ramanathan, a researcher at India's Takshashila Institution.

Although underwater drones are limited in many aspects due to their small size, they can perform tasks that larger ships cannot, such as entering shallower areas.

"They can collect sounds, information about the acoustic signatures of other ships, and build a large database, so that in the future, when they detect these acoustic signatures, they can immediately tell what they have encountered," Ramanathan said.

It is noted that the "mother ship" could expand the range of these underwater drones and serve to restrict the freedom of navigation of its adversaries.