China's CSSC Begins Building Haze-Gray "Large Unmanned Ship"

The worlds largest shipbuilder, CSSC, has begun construction on an advanced large unmanned ship at a...

The world's largest shipbuilder, CSSC, has begun construction on an "advanced large unmanned ship" at a yard in Guangzhou. 

The design bears a striking resemblace to the trimaran Independence-class littoral combat ship, with the addition of the low-observable tumblehome bow and inward-canted deckhouse of the Zumwalt-class destroyer - all familiar features from U.S. Navy ship-design trends in the mid-2000s. It appears to have a deck-mounted weapons platform and twin side hatches that could be positioned appropriately for torpedo launchers. 

According to CSSC's No. 716 Research Institute, the new drone ship will be a high-speed hydrofoiling design, characterized by high endurance and long range. As with other recent Chinese defense shipbuilding projects, the design team emphasized domestically-sourced components, especially the main propulsion system. 

The No. 716 research institute (along with two dozen other 700-series institutes at CSSC) is subject to U.S. Commerce Department controls and restrictions on technology and goods exports. Multiple CSSC-owned shipyards in Guangzhou are subject to similar restrictions. 

CSSC Huangpu Wenchong recently launched what it believes to be the world's first "drone carrier," an optionally-autonomous vessel that carries other autonomous systems. The 290-foot vessel is designed to carry "dozens" of unmanned systems fitted with scientific instruments. The project's overarching objective is to deploy unmanned devices en masse for a 3D, networked observation system, above and below the surface - an "Intelligent and Agile Ocean Stereoscopic Observation System" covering an area about 50 nm in diameter, with plain crossover applications for naval ISR purposes.