China is building something no navy has tried before; a carrier for unmanned submarines... It was spotted at a shipyard in Shanghai. The ship is around 205m long and has an internal well deck that can launch and recover drone subs up to 45m long

x.com ^ | September 15, 2026 | WarMonitor🇺🇦🇬🇧 @WarMonitor3

[ransomnote]

 

WarMonitor

 

@WarMonitor3

 

China is building something no navy has tried before; a carrier for unmanned submarines... It was spotted at a shipyard in Shanghai. The ship is around 205m long and has an internal well deck that can launch and recover drone subs up to 45m long, with room for about four of them.

 

China is building something no navy has tried before; a carrier for unmanned submarines... It was spotted at a shipyard in Shanghai. The ship is around 205m long and has an internal well deck that can launch and recover drone subs up to 45m long, with room for about four of them.

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TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: ahoyhoy

[Magnum44]

Let me know when they start building a submarine that can launch carriers....

[not in the club]

Seems silly to do this from a surface ship, but I doubt their submarines are up to the task

[PGR88]

China is certainly moving ahead with drone technology in all areas.

I imagine too the CCP is making tons of money and resources available to large numbers of state-controlled entities for R&D

so it shouldn’t be a surprise.

[NonValueAdded]

the Disco Valenti?

[pingman]

AKA a “Big Fat Target”.

[rexthecat]

The future of all navies will be unmanned surface ships and eventually, unmanned submarines.

[Vermont Lt]

Future coral reef.

[Resolute Conservative]

I like playing Dominoes...

[Seruzawa]

Have they solved their self-sinking submarine problem? They have a tendency to sink at dock.

[GOPJ]

Could attempting to shut down our AI research and Data Centers be part of their plan for war dominance? Is that possible?

Is the Pope Catholic?

[dfwgator]

Is the Pope Catholic?

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No.

[ansel12]

They have already had a sea drone sink an enemy sea drone in the Ukraine war, a new baby step.

[sjmjax]

Yes, submarine launched submarine drones would make more sense.

But, technological advances have to start somewhere.

[Antoninus]

This is a fairly brilliant idea when it comes to force projection. It’s a way to put submersible drones thousands of miles closer to the target and give them a mother ship to collect and service them after they’ve completed their mission.

We should be building swarms of submersible drones. Are we?

[GOPJ]

The future of all navies will be unmanned surface ships and eventually, unmanned submarines.

You're right, and that will be AI amazing against lesser developed navies. They lose a ship with no one on it and an adversary loses one ship with a thousand sailors on it? That's not a draw. But among tech equals like China and the US? Their advantage disappears. What's the step "after" equal blue water drone warfare? That's where ...

[dinodino]

Seems like a good idea. I wonder why they wouldn’t just make it look like a RORO vessel…

[GOPJ]

LOL - should have used the bear in the woods thing... good catch dfwgator.

:)

[jimtorr]

We should be building swarms of submersible drones. Are we?

I don't know about swarms, but a disabled submersible drone was captured by Iran the other day, and they claimed it was one of ours. I haven't seen evidence that it was American, it is more likely to be one out their own.

[ridesthemiles]

A MOTHER & PUPS”