In a press conference held a few hours ago during his visit to Japan, American President Joe Biden declared that the United States would intervene militarily if China militarily occupied Taiwan. The response was not long in coming, with the Chinese Foreign Ministry urging the occupant of the White House to be "cautious".
Meanwhile, however, tension is also rising in the Pacific area: China has just launched an 88 meter (290 foot) long "drone carrier" called Zhu Hai Yun. She is the first vessel of this type in the world: she will operate over 50 autonomous flying, land and underwater aircraft.
A “mother” ship full of “children”
With everything needed to launch integrated “special operations”, the Zhu Hai Yun saw the light in just 10 months at the Huangpu Wenchong shipyard in the Chinese city of Guangzhou. China is not aiming to make it sail alone (like the Japanese autonomous container ship I told you about a few days ago). She will be “remote-controlled” until she is out at sea, then her autonomous systems will take control.
According to the construction company which completed the ship, this “drone carrier” has everything needed to deploy autonomous submarines, tanks and aircraft into battle. Its equipment also includes "adaptive" communication networks to obtain a three-dimensional view of the objectives. At the end of the mission (it is not clear to me how this happens with 'terrestrial' drones) it can welcome back everything that left from its deck or keel.
This gatekeeper was not built for war. Or not?
“The intelligent, unmanned vessel is a beautiful new 'marine species'. It will bring revolutionary changes for ocean observation,” says the professor Dake Chen of the School of Oceanography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Although it was primarily presented as an ocean research platform, the South China Morning Post reports that the Zhu Hai Yun also has military capabilities to “intercept and expel invasive targets.” An interesting use of the language to say that it can be used "safely" in war.
Quiet, however, it is really difficult to find anything else in this period.