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On October 1st, China unveiled its first ever autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) HSU-001 during its National Day celebration Military Parade.
Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CBSA) spoke to Business Insider regarding the HSU-001.
According to him, it appears to be primarily useful for intelligence gathering. The expert claims that the AUV isn’t large enough carry large munitions in addition to the engine, batteries, and electrical systems that would be necessary to travel underwater for a prolonged period of time.
“It doesn’t really look like it’s made for mine-laying,” he said.
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The masts atop the drone would be used to transmit intelligence back to the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) via satellite.
The AUV is a strategically smart investment for China because it can be deployed from the mainland, or one of its many bases in the South China Sea.
Forbes suggested that the AUV will be used to patrol over long distances. In the case there are also thrusters that allow the device to “hang” in the water or move vertically up or down, as well as sideways.
The flat nose is a sign that the device is equipped with a relatively large sonar to detect underwater targets. Its retractable surveillance devices are similar to “periscopes”.
Small bumps on both sides of the front can be part of a homing system that allows you to find underwater objects, possibly even a mother submarine.
Large underwater robotic systems are considered as one of the modern key technologies in the naval warfare, but the cost and complexity of this solution do not yet allow the use of such devices in real combat operations.
Business Insider suggested that despite the technology being impressive, the US was still ahead of China in terms of it.
In contrast, Forbes claimed that the Chinese AUV is actually the state-of-the-art solution and it is the only one that can actually be used in practice.
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Chinese military has taken a quantum technological leap on a fraction of the Pentagon budget. The Chinese 70th anniversary parade was very impressive and showcased a very modern, well trained and lethal force. China and Russia combined have no equal in this world.
Phew … So glad they’re AUV’s if they’d been new bombs I would have had to dig the bunker in the back garden down another 10 metres
Here is an article that looks at recent developments in China’s missile program:
https://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2019/09/chinas-rocket-forces-new-cold-war-era.html
China is well on the way to creating a scenario where it will be increasingly difficult to remove the nation as a world power.
Very nice article, thank you.
What, for thousands of years China was in the front of inventing a lot of stuff, some good, some bad, but this latest showcase isnt a surpirce, if you are, thats more due to ignorance, and of course, propaganda against China, while I am not the slightest surpriced. We may never agree upon everything, yeah, thats goes even to my wife, but never the less, China is here to stay, as an equallizer to the imperial banana republic Dumbf….istan.
Yeah, it took a while, but from now on, I think the rest of the world will be dragging behind, from quantum to ordinary systems etc, I dont doubt that, they where down for an long, long time, but not any more, and so far I see only defence systems, of course they have the Nukes, but apart from the, no offence, they know their Sun-Tzu ( I wounder, have you read it, if not, you really should do that and I recomend it as an, must have read) and thats where the UssA lost it, whom had hegmony for an century, that, is gone, and every day, they learn new tricks, the way the Houtis took out the Saudi-barbarians, from the airplanes to the footsoldiers, is an expample that is pure briliance, everytime I read about it, the build up and what then happened, my respect grows, I am really impressed and that, is an lesson for the future, and the future wars will be mainly machanical, and deterent, have enough defence systems to make shure anyone attacking will have to go thru an multilayered defence system and sooner ot later you run out of plains, one of the real advantages the imperial banana republic had, airpower, now, even that one is gone, and the carriers are planet sice targets, you simply can miss, from below or above but also the thinking about satelites, intellegence, is crusial, even into the future.
Yup, wankees, take an good look, and weep. I think you will never catch up.
peace
Those artificial islands of them really only make sense if they already had these so no doubt these are not just prototypes but well developed ones. And if you combine them with the droneswarm tech the Chinese have been working hard on….. Kamikaze U-boat wolfpacks that don’t need air. Ouch!!! say the battlefleets.
Nice, the underwater drones I’ve been predicting (and anybody with half a brain) for over a decade. Carriers just went completely obsolete.
I think every sort of large warship is obsolete, and that the Iranians really have the right idea in that regard.
Russians, Iranians and Chinese have war-gamed SSM impact on naval vessels, just like ATGM on tanks, and it took a maximum of three SSM to sink and Americunt rusted aircraft carrier. In the shallow confines of the Persian Gulf only two SSM would sink it.
Underwater drones look pretty amazing. Carriers probably went obsolete soon after WW2 when guided missile technology came on line. The Excocet strike in the Falklands underscored that, and those missiles had been around for a while then. These days carriers are simply used to bully weak nations, they can’t do much else as any moderately advanced nation can endanger them at sea. The underwater drone is most useful against enemy submarines that can still today sneak up on a lot of targets (not talking about launching SLBMs). China has just taken a serious step towards limiting American submarine activity near their waters. These UWDs may just do search and locate, and that alone is very cool.