In a blast of colorful pyrotechnics on December 27, a shipyard in Shanghai launched CNS Sichuan, the first vessel in a new class of assault ship for the Chinese navy.
The 830-foot, 40,000-ton Sichuan boasts a full-length flight deck and appears to have an electromagnetic aircraft catapult and arrester wires. It’s an aircraft carrier, although slightly smaller than most of the world’s carriers.
Similar ships in service with fleets all over the world tend to devote most of their time, deck space and internal storage to amphibious missions: hauling marines and their equipment for beach landings and helicopter assaults.
But some of the bigger assault ships in some of the bigger navies also double as small aircraft carriers – provided they have suitable aircraft such as the AV-8B Harrier or F-35B Lightning jump jets, whose downward-blasting engines allow them to operate from short flight decks without catapults.
The Chinese military doesn’t have jump jets. What it does have – in abundance – is drones, including unmanned helicopters and pilotless jets and turboprops. It’s not hard to make the connection. Sichuan and any additional Type 076 ships that follow her into Chinese navy service in the coming years may turn out to be the world’s first purpose-built large drone carriers.
In a blast of colorful pyrotechnics on December 27, a shipyard in Shanghai launched CNS Sichuan, the first vessel in a new class of assault ship for the Chinese navy.
The 830-foot, 40,000-ton Sichuan boasts a full-length flight deck and appears to have an electromagnetic aircraft catapult and arrester wires. It’s an aircraft carrier, although slightly smaller than most of the world’s carriers.
Similar ships in service with fleets all over the world tend to devote most of their time, deck space and internal storage to amphibious missions: hauling marines and their equipment for beach landings and helicopter assaults.
But some of the bigger assault ships in some of the bigger navies also double as small aircraft carriers – provided they have suitable aircraft such as the AV-8B Harrier or F-35B Lightning jump jets, whose downward-blasting engines allow them to operate from short flight decks without catapults.
The Chinese military doesn’t have jump jets. What it does have – in abundance – is drones, including unmanned helicopters and pilotless jets and turboprops. It’s not hard to make the connection. Sichuan and any additional Type 076 ships that follow her into Chinese navy service in the coming years may turn out to be the world’s first purpose-built large drone carriers.