China builds world's first dedicated drone carrier, but it's shrouded in mystery: Report
File photo.
China has built the world'sfirst dedicated drone carrier, but the circumstances surrounding it remain a mystery. According to a report by Naval News on Wednesday (May 15), the drone carrieris hiddenon the Yangtze. The report said that the shipwas launchedin December 2022butthe news of it had not been reporteduntil now.
China currently has three carriers, and this drone carrier would be the country's fourth. Drones are increasinglybecoming apart of naval warfare, and the navies of some countries- notablyIran and Turkey, are working on plans for drone carriers.
A design smaller than regular aircraft carriers
The Naval News report said that the design of China's drone carrieris smaller than the regular aircraft carriers, with a flight deckapproximately one-third the length and half the width ofa USNavy or Chinese Navy supercarrier.
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Itis slightly shorter butwiderthan a World War Two escort carrier, the report said.
The report pointed out that it would be possible to operate a fixed-wing aircraft from the carrier, but its straight deck arrangement would be anachronistic, not allowing aircraft to take off and landat the same time.
There also doesn't seem to bespace for a typical aircraft hangar, sothe number of aircraft would be limited.
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"It is immediately apparent that it is, in general arrangement, an aircraft carrierof some sort. It has a marked runaway running along the port (left side) with an island superstructure on the starboard (right) side," the report also said.
The flight deck iswideenough to comfortably operate aircraft or drones with a wingspan of around 20 meterssuchas Chinese versions of the Predator drone.
(With inputs from agencies)