China's Merchant Warship with Drone Launcher Alarms Global Defense Experts

The missile-armed merchant ship has been a matter of much debate, even as images of a Chinese medium-sized cargo ship docked at Shanghai's Hudong-Zhonghua shipyard -- fitted with a modular electromagnetic catapult for launching advanced combat drones or fighter jets -- kicked up heated discussion online and also sent alarm bells ringing across global defence circles.

The Chinese cargo ship, equipped with armed and aircraft-launching configurations, highlights Beijing's ability to equip its civilian containership fleet for wartime roles.

Pictures show stealth drones next to the launcher as if ready for take-off. The ship also has the recently fitted, containerised 30mm close-in auto cannon system, phased-array radar and frigate-like amounts of vertical launch missile cells, as reported earlier.

The images circulating online showed a Chinese container vessel at a Shanghai shipyard -- Zhongda 79 -- a 97-metre container ship equipped with containerised vertical launch missile cells, suggesting a modular "arsenal ship" concept that could quickly convert civilian hulls into combat platforms.

According to USNI News, the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has most warships of any navy in the world now, amounting to more than 370 plus, a figure that has surpassed the US' total of 290 military vessels.

The US Navy still maintains the upper hand, but that edge is purportedly being eroded fast.

Besides, China's 4,000-plus merchant vessels -- many of them built in dual-use yards to military specifications -- could convert en masse to warship-like levels of capability, like this drone ship.

In China's case, these new container-ship drones could have multiple uses. Perhaps the critical advantage that any kind of aircraft gives to a ship or a fleet at sea is that it hugely extends sensor range, says the report.

These drones can carry out strike missions -- from simple, slow-flying one-way attacks up through fast, jet-propelled ones -- then unload a massive swarm of cheap short-ranging strike bots that could potentially overload almost any defence, it adds.

- IANS