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A few days ago, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a well-known American think tank, set its sights on the next-generation amphibious assault ship that is still under construction. They took out a satellite photo taken on July 4, which shows the latest developments of the next-generation amphibious assault ship under construction in a shipyard on Changxing Island. For the sake of convenience, this issue will still refer to it as the Type 076 amphibious assault ship.

According to the satellite images this time, the first 076 ship under construction seems to have closed the power compartment, and the size of its flight deck can be compared with a nearby stadium and the Type 075 amphibious assault ship No. 4 that is being fitted out. It can be clearly seen that the flight deck of 076 is very large, almost a circle larger than that of 075. Specifically, the size of its flight deck may reach 260 meters × 52 meters, and the total deck area is equivalent to 3 American football fields.

We will not compare this value with similar equipment of foreign armies, because it is indeed the largest amphibious assault ship in the world. From this, we can infer that after the completion of the 076 amphibious assault ship, its displacement should be between 075 andLiaoningThe latter has a deck length of 304 meters and a displacement of 67,000 tons. In other words, the displacement of the 076 amphibious assault ship is estimated to be around 50,000 tons.

If this speculation is confirmed to be correct, then the size of the 076 will be larger than the French Navy's Charles de Gaulle nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. So the question is, will the 076 really become a new type of small aircraft carrier? At present, we cannot make a conclusion on this issue. We only know that the 076 has been equipped with an electromagnetic catapult track and the deck area is larger than that of the 075, which means that it may be equipped with a fixed-wing catapult type.Carrier-based aircraft, instead of being able to only take off and land helicopters like the 075.

This means that the aviation combat capability of 076 will be stronger than that of 075, and it will also become the world's first amphibious assault ship equipped with an electromagnetic catapult, but its aviation combat capability will still not exceed that of a seriousaircraft carrierAfter all, the deck area is still not as good as that of an aircraft carrier. Since this aspect has been discussed in previous programs, I will not say more. When re-examining the aviation combat capability of 076, I found that the "anti-submarine" item seems to be easily overlooked.

Since the birth of submarines, this special warship that sneaks underwater has always been a major threat to surface warships. Large surface warships such as aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships are "high-value targets" in the eyes of enemy submarine commanders. These large warships themselves have prominent defensive weaknesses, so they need to cooperate with escort ships in wartime.Destroyer, frigates, nuclear submarines, etc. to defend against air and underwater threats.

Whether it is an amphibious assault formation orCarrier Battle GroupWhen they are performing their missions, they will be in the state of crossing the sea most of the time. For an amphibious assault ship formation, if it is to perform a cross-sea landing mission, it is possible to be intercepted by enemy submarines during the crossing. This is called "attacking halfway across the sea". If our amphibious assault formation can be severely damaged at this stage, then the landing force in the formation will not have the opportunity to hit the beach.

Therefore, the importance of anti-submarine warfare in this situation is self-evident. When we talked about this topic before, we often unconsciously divided the "anti-submarine" task to escort destroyers, frigates and attack nuclear submarines. This is not without reason. The main responsibilities of these three types of combat ships include anti-submarine warfare. There is a saying that attack nuclear submarines are the best submarine killers. But now we have to consider a question: how can an amphibious assault formation detect the location of enemy submarines in advance?

I would like to introduce a concept first, UAV anti-submarine, this technology has been around for a long time. As early as 1959, the US Navy first flew the QH-50 unmanned anti-submarine helicopter. However, its appearance is not to enhance the US fleet's ability to detect submarines, but to enhance its ability to strike submarines.

In that era, even the World War IISonarThe system is also sufficient to detect submarines of the former Soviet Union. At that time, the US fleet lacked long-range strike capabilities against submarines. If professional anti-submarine helicopters were arranged on board, the old US destroyers at that time did not have enough deck space to operate, so this equipment was developed.

The QH-50 can carry two MK-44 torpedoes or one MK-46 torpedo. In addition to being used by the U.S. Army and Navy, this equipment was also exported to the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. From the data photos, this drone mainly relies on images and radar to conduct submarine reconnaissance. However, this was considered a very advanced gadget at the time, but for the U.S. military, its performance was not reliable. According to statistics, 80% of the crashes during its service were caused by its own electronic equipment failures, so the subsequent research and development plan was cancelled in 1969.

As time goes by, anti-submarine technology is also being updated. Today's anti-submarine means mainly use a variety of means such as magnetic anomaly detection, radar, optoelectronic detection, and sonar. For example, the US P-8A anti-submarine patrol aircraft is equipped with magnetic anomaly detection devices, AN/APY-10 radars, MX-20HD optoelectronic search devices, and 100 pre-loaded sonar buoys. However, like the P-8A and our army's Y-9 anti-submarine aircraft, the former is derived from the Boeing-737-800 passenger aircraft, and the latter is improved from the Y-9 transport aircraft independently developed and produced by my country. Both aircraft are land-based aircraft and can only take off from land airports, relying on their range to expand the scope of defensive anti-submarine operations as much as possible.

If we want to conduct offensive anti-submarine operations in the ocean in the future, or expand active defensive anti-submarine operations to a wider range, we will have two options. The first is to learn from the United States and build overseas military bases with airports and offensive capabilities. However, doing so would be tantamount to overturning our country's political commitments, and would involve huge political and diplomatic risks.

The second option is to give the drone anti-submarine capabilities and then find a mobile airport at sea for it. Some people may think of aircraft carriers. Indeed, aircraft carriers that can take off and land fixed-wing carrier-based aircraft can also take off and land drones with relatively small take-off weight and size. However, using aircraft carriers as take-off and landing platforms for anti-submarine drones will occupy the preparation space of other aircraft carrier-based aircraft, which will reduce the combat effectiveness of the aircraft carrier itself.

In this case, large surface combat ships like the Type 076, which have a flat deck, an electromagnetic catapult system, and can launch large fixed-wing drones, can become the "protagonist" of this plan. Anti-submarine drone technology is no longer a difficult problem. If the size limit is not taken into account, the MQ-4C Poseidon unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, which is based on the RQ-4 Global Hawk drone and developed specifically for the US Navy, can be used in conjunction with the P-8A anti-submarine patrol aircraft. The Poseidon can rely on its high-altitude and long-flight characteristics, plus the large number of overseas airports and military bases built by the United States, to perform uninterrupted wide-area surveillance and reconnaissance missions, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. The time it performs this intensity mission accounts for 80% of the total mission time throughout the year. When necessary, it can also call the P-8A for low-altitude high-precision detection.

Secondly, there is the US military's MQ-9B "Sea Guardian", which everyone should be familiar with.MQ-9The naval version of the "Reaper" reconnaissance and strike drone. It can stay in the air for 8 hours in the anti-submarine mission area under the condition of mounting anti-submarine equipment. The "Poseidon" cannot mount anti-submarine buoys, but it can, and it can mount 80 buoys at a time, including temperature measurement and sonar buoys. The anti-submarine combat process is basically the same as that of the manned P-8A, that is, first deploy temperature measurement buoys to obtain hydrological information of the target sea area, and then set the parameters of passive directional buoys based on this information, and then drop this batch of buoys. After obtaining the approximate location of the target, the active positioning sonar buoy is deployed to determine the exact location of the target.

Finally, there is the MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned helicopter. This type of drone is the most suitable for boarding the 076 amphibious assault ship among the three introduced, because it uses the Bell-407 helicopter combined with the unmanned technology of the MQ-8 prototype. The size has not changed compared to the Bell-407. Not to mention the big guy with catapults like the 076, the helicopter deck of destroyers and frigates can also take off and land. In February 2021, the "Fire Scout" also carried out a demonstration of the anti-submarine combat capability of the drone system with sonar buoys, receivers, processors and other equipment. The results showed that the design of installing sonar buoy pods (a total of 48 buoys) on both sides of the fuselage was successful, and the MQ-8C has anti-submarine capabilities.

In summary, we can assume that the future Type 076 amphibious assault ship has the potential to carry drones, expand the anti-submarine range of the fleet and increase tactical flexibility. Don't think that my lack of examples of relevant equipment in my country means that we don't have such drone systems that can be used for anti-submarine operations. In fact, our military scientific research departments have already begun to install magnetic anomaly detection devices on drones.

Compared with traditional sonar and optoelectronic detection methods, the main advantages of magnetic anomaly detection are short identification time, high positioning accuracy, and little impact from complex shallow water hydrological and meteorological conditions. Of course, as I said, modern anti-submarine means are not single. The fact that we use anti-submarine drones equipped with such devices does not mean that platforms that use other means for anti-submarine operations are useless. On the contrary, drones are limited by their size, and the power that their electronic equipment can ultimately exert may still not be as good as that of large anti-submarine patrol aircraft and surface warships.

The 076 is equipped with them only to expand the early anti-submarine warning range for the fleet, and ultimately to complete the identification, tracking, attack and attack assessment of the target, which still requires the participation of warships or anti-submarine aircraft. In short, the 076, a new type of amphibious assault ship that is currently unique, provides a new idea and new choice for our future naval tactics, formation composition, and mission types.