December 25, 2022 17:10 Last updated: 18:18
“CCTV” broadcast footage of a PLA exercise on Thursday, in which a rare small twin-hull UAV aircraft carrier was used, which sparked discussions among military experts around the world.
In the video, the bow of the catamaran drone carrier has two large anchor cable reels and five drone towing and landing points. Some military experts believe that these features are similar to the “China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation” shown at last year’s Zhuhai Air Show The “Boshark 1” model is very similar.
The People’s Liberation Army was displaying the world’s rarest small catamaran drone aircraft carrier. CCTV film.
“Bo Shark 1” was launched in May last year. It is a two-hull ship and is known as a “small aircraft carrier”. Shark patterns are painted on both sides of the bow, and the center of the hull is a high bridge with tall masts and several spherical radomes. This is the first time that official mainland media have revealed pictures of him serving in the army.
The US “Power” website pointed out that this small bi-hull aircraft carrier provides the PLA with a low-cost platform to simulate drone swarms, cruise missiles and large-scale electronic warfare attacks. Not only can the People’s Liberation Army assess in advance whether the military can withstand similar attacks, but it also means that the Chinese Navy can invest in drone carriers in future naval battles.
“Agence France-Presse” worries that this small two-hull aircraft carrier could use drone swarms or launch cruise missiles to attack US military targets in a future Sino-US conflict.
Model of “Boshark 1”. pictures online.
In fact, many countries consider drones as a key weapon technology in modern warfare. During the Russo-Ukraine War, the Ukrainian Navy used TB2 drones to destroy several ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. The TB2, which served as a decoy, was responsible for diverting the attention of the main Russian Black Sea fleet Moskva, allowing the Ukrainian Army to successfully attack the ship with Neptune anti-ship missiles.
Likewise, drones played an important role in the wars in Armenia and Azerbaijan. During the conflict, both sides released a large number of drones to destroy the enemy’s main tanks and armored personnel carriers and lead armed attack helicopters to carry out air strikes, which made people see the excellent ability of drones to monitor the battlefield and take the initiative to attack.
Former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Ochmanek even said that drones are the decisive key to the Taiwan Strait war. He said that through simulations, it has been proven that a large number of low-cost drones can use the PLA’s surface-to-air missiles, and the radar system is shared with F-35 and F-22 fighters, so that military aircraft can target targets without using radar. If there are 1,000 drones flying at subsonic speeds over the Taiwan Strait, they can not only assist in covering fighter jets, but also attack PLA vehicles, greatly improving the survival rate of fighter jets.
On the other hand, China is not to be late, and is actively developing unmanned aerial vehicles, and Rainbow System and Pterosaur UAVs are very popular at home and abroad.
Some analysts believe that if a conflict breaks out in the Taiwan Strait, PLA drones will play the following two important roles. One is countermeasures against the US. If the US really sends an aircraft carrier battle group, the Pterosaur-10 can have a specially optimized passive radar system to conduct long-term reconnaissance 300 kilometers away from formation US aircraft carriers to obtain important electromagnetic intelligence for the PLA It can even maintain final precision guidelines for anti-ship ballistic missiles. Such tactics continue to develop, and in the future there may be new developments in the anti-submarine missions guided by drones and land-based missiles, which can greatly impair the ability of the United States to intervene in Eastern waters Asia.
The second is reconnaissance against Taiwan. The People’s Liberation Army will have a high probability of crushing Taiwan’s combat power with long-range rocket launchers and various missiles, including air force wings, coastal airfields, missile camps, etc., to ensure the conservation of military forces for subsequent trans-sea . landings. The Pterosaur-10 can evade Taiwan’s radar system, conduct reconnaissance around the island 260 kilometers away from the coast, collect the required fire control data for the PLA, and can also conduct ground strikes and artillery fire to strengthen the first wave of results.
It can be seen that with the advantage of PLA drones, the military gap in the Taiwan Strait will continue to tilt.
Zhi Ge Tang
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