Can Chinese Surface Ocean Drones Rival or Challenge US Unmanned Surface Vehicles?

By Kris Osborn – President & Editor-In-Chief, Warrior Maven

(Washington, DC) US Navy Unmanned Surface Vehicles continue to reach paradigm-changing levels of autonomous navigation, networking and multi-domain operational capacity. The service is successfully building Small, Medium and Large USVs with algorithms for many independent functions, radar and weapons and new generation of interfaces to enable joint connectivity. Small USVs emerged for the Navy many years ago, and the service has in recent years made breakthrough progress with medium and large USVs as well, unmanned vessels which will be armed with a clear understanding that any decision about the use of lethal force will be made by a human being. However, the ships are being engineered with new generations of algorithms sufficient to enable many more functions independently without human intervention, such as intelligence collection and processing, targeting and information transmission across air-sea-and -ground “nodes” within a multi-domain network.

US Navy USVs are increasingly able to coordinate autonomous activities and share information in relation with one another as part of an integrated mission to assess an enemy perimeter, identify and pass along targeting information or engage in highly networked mine and submarine hunting.

How Far Along is China?

Given the scope of US Navy progress in the area of autonomous surface warfare and fast-expanding fleet of drone warships, it comes as no surprise to learn that the large and closely followed Chinese Navy is reporting success with the same thing.

As far back as several years ago, the Chinese Communist Party-backed Global Times newspaper says a new Chinese unmanned high-speed vessel demonstrated “breakthrough” levels of “dynamic cooperative confrontation technology.” This language, according to the paper, suggests that the Chinese USVs can “quickly intercept, besiege and expel invasive targets.”

Chinese & U.S. Unmanned High-Speed Vessels

This technology is brought to fruition through advanced levels of collaborative autonomy wherein advanced algorithms are able to process incoming data, bounce it off a vast database to perform analyses and optimize a course of action. The Chinese paper describes it as “collaborative perception, high-speed tracking, evidence collection, interception and guarding Chinese sea territory.”

This language sounds strikingly familiar, as it mirror what the US Navy has been advancing for many years with its Ghost Fleet or Operation Overlord effort.