By Jim Morris, Warrior Vice President, News
Chinese-affiliated social media has posted elaborate moving graphical video displays of Chinese submarine-launched drone swarms capable of traveling into the air from the undersea realm to track and destroy US Navy aircraft carriers.
Animation posted on social media depicts hundreds of cylinder-like drones flying out of a submarine just emerging from beneath the surface, an image which suggests that indeed a large-scale, coordinated aerial drone swarm attack on carriers could prove quite difficult to defend.
“Once deployed from Chinese submarines, these underwater drones would form a swarm in the air and launch surprise attacks on American warships, overwhelming their defensive systems and sending them to the bottom of the ocean,” Brandon J. Weichert writes in the National Interest.
The drone was developed by the Northwestern Polytechnical University and the Chinese Aerodynamics Research and Development Centre. Earlier this year, in a Chinese aeronautics journal, researchers claimed that the drone’s design improves its chances for survival both underwater and in the air. The Chinese also claim that its latest drones are more advanced than the underwater drones fielded by the US.
The drone has been dubbed Feiyi. According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the Hong Kong-based newspaper, it has four pairs of rotating blades for flight that can fold like human arms. That allows the blades to cling closely to the fuselage, which reduces water resistance.
At the same time, it has tail-mounted propellers for underwater operations.
The SCMP noted that drones used by the US Navy are transported to the surface in a torpedo-like tube, have no underwater mobility and cannot re-enter the water once it is in the skies.
